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sirikenobi12 · 3 years

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War & the Jedi

This will be a long meta rant, FYI.

The Jedi Order, specifically the Prequel era Jedi Order, gets a lot of hate these days particularly regarding their involvement in the Clone Wars. Accusations are tossed at their feet constantly ranging from corruption all the way up to warmongering.

Let’s first look at the Oxford English Dictionary definition of these two accusations, shall we?

Corruption - having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.

Warmonger - a person who encourages or advocates aggression towards other countries or groups.

The definitions of these two words are so very misunderstood when it comes to relation to the Jedi. If the Jedi are truly “corrupt” then where are the examples of their dishonesty for wealth or personal gain? In fact, I’d argue that canon (and Legends) makes a point to show us that it is the Sith who are in it for personal gain, not the Jedi. The Jedi have absolutely NOTHING to gain from this war on a personal level, in fact they are losing members in terrifying numbers.

The Jedi are also not advocating aggression towards the Separatists, in fact what we see instead is the Jedi DEFENDING against the Separatists. I have yet to see in either canon or legends an instance where the Republic forces invade a Separatist planet who doesn’t have an army or some military involvement (i.e. weapon factories). However, time after time we see the Separatists forcing peaceful planets who want nothing to do with them to either bow to their cause or die (i.e. Ryloth, Lurmen planet, Kiros, Mandalore) the Jedi and Republic Troops will then follow the Separatists to these planets, but they try to do what they can to liberate the planet from the Separaist invasion and then they give the planet the OPTION to join the Republic for safety and economic reasons, but they never force them, as is super evident with Mandalore.

Yet people don’t seem to see this and continue to drag the Jedi through the mud.

Here are the top 5 other “woke” takes I hear -

Jedi are peacekeepers and should not have gotten involved:

First things first, let’s look at the definition of Peacekeeper - a soldier, military force, etc., deployed to maintain or restore peace.

I’d argue by that definition the Jedi were still peacekeepers, it’s true that they weren’t a 3rd party as they normally were before the war, but their position was trying to maintain or restore peace. Peacekeeper is not the same thing as a Pacifist, the Jedi were skilled warriors (training from childhood to wield a lightsaber), the difference is Jedi used their skills for defense not attack which is what we constantly saw throughout the Clone Wars.

With regards to the idea that Jedi “should not have gotten involved” I ask you then what exactly were they supposed to do instead?

We see at the beginning of Attack of the Clones that the Jedi are worried things will escalate to war, they have obviously gone to the Chancellor hoping that a diplomatic solution can be presented to avoid bloodshed. Or if that isn’t possible then that the Republic have some way to defend themselves other than relying solely on the Jedi (i.e. an army). The Separatists are the ones pushing them to a breaking point, were the Jedi just supposed to stand back and let innocent people be invaded/killed because they didn’t want to get involved? The Jedi were “Guardians of Peace and Justice” which means it was their duty to help bring about peace in the galaxy while also enacting justice.

Then after Geonosis (where they lost approx. 187 members mind you) they learned that the Sith are leading the Separatist army - the Jedi are duty bound by their code to fight the Sith, they had no choice but to join the war.

So, I ask again...what were they supposed to do instead?

2. Jedi used a slave army for their own purposes:

Okay, I can (and probably will) write a whole argument based on just this accusation alone. There are so many fallacies I don’t even know where to begin but I’ll try.

I guess my first question is the same as #1, what were the Jedi supposed to do instead with regards to the Clones?

Technically speaking the Clones didn’t “belong” to the Jedi, they were “property” of the Republic (as stated by Lama Su in Attack of the Clones). In fact, the Jedi Council not only didn’t know about the order, they had vehemently denied Syfo Dias’ earlier request to raise an army in the first place. The Sith KNEW the Jedi would be against it, this was all part of their plan to trap the Jedi (as was EVERYTHING about the war) - they clouded the Force, they literally deleted Kamino from the Archives so the Jedi wouldn’t discover it until the Sith WANTED them to (i.e. Jango just happened to use a Kamino dart?? Come on people). Yoda even states “blind we are if creation of this clone army we could not see” he fully admits they missed it because the Dark Side was clouding their vision.

Regardless, the army was created, there was no changing that fact. Had the Jedi not taken command of the army do you think the Clones wouldn’t have had to go to war? Do you actually believe that the Republic who couldn’t get their citizens to give 2 craps about the war would’ve taken up the mantle and fought instead? Do you think if the Jedi were like “thanks, but we didn’t order this” that the Kamioans would’ve just let the Clones go free?

The answer you’re looking for is...no.

So, like absolutely everything about the Clone Wars the Jedi did the best they could with the cards they had been dealt. They chose to lead the army on the front lines, putting themselves in just as much mortal danger as the men they were leading. They even sent a member of the Jedi Council to oversee the creation of future clones/training to ensure they were being treated humanely (something the Kamioans thought was ridiculous). They were the first to tell the clones that they were individuals, they constantly put themselves in front of their men to protect them (i.e. season 7 Obi-Wan deflecting the rocket from blowing up his men). The Jedi did what they could, just because we didn’t see on screen Jedi stopping to grieve every time a clone died did not mean that they didn’t care - real life Generals can’t stop in the middle of a battle to grieve over their fallen soldiers either, so why is it we consider it a moral crime if the Jedi don’t?

Another thing I’ll add is once the Jedi had evidence that the Clones were actually ordered by Dooku, did they immediately stop and say “oh hell no, these flesh droids can’t be trusted, we should just have them decommissioned”?? NO! They defended the Clones, stating that they were good men and should be trusted (and look where that trust got them in the end).

The Jedi were forced/coerced to fight this war as much as the Clones were!! Why are we willing to forgive the Clones, but not the Jedi???

3. Ki-Adi-Mundi killing Geonosians was the same as Anakin’s slaughter at the Tusken camp:

This is another moment where context is everything because there is a HUGE difference between Ki-Adi-Mundi on Geonosis and Anakin in the Tusken camp. The fact that I have to even spell it out makes me wonder how people can even dress themselves in the morning.

The Geonosians were an opposing military force, attacking Ki-Adi and his troops. Anakin slaughtered unarmed women and children out of vengeance.

Now, had Ki-Adi turned to his men and screamed “to the catacombs!” brandishing his lightsaber with a murderous glint in his eyes and proceeded to cut down the unarmed bugs below the battle then you’d have an accurate comparison on your hands and I’d be appalled right there with you.

But, as it stands this is not the same thing...not even close.

4. The Jedi sent children to war:

So, this is a tougher one and I can even understand the concerns behind it, and I even share some of those concerns. The thing I will say to this is, given what we see throughout Star Wars, what constitutes a “child” seems to be different than our own real world definition.

Padme, for example, was 14 when she was elected Queen, and she wasn’t even the youngest ever elected. She (and her handmaids) were trained as children to defend themselves and their people both politically and in battle (much like Jedi), but you don’t hear people condemning the people/traditions of Naboo the way we see the Jedi being condemned for theirs.

Jedi children arguably mature faster than your standard person, and with regards to Star Wars there are also species’ age ranges to keep in mind. Grogu for example is still a baby at age 50, could it be possible that Ahsoka at age 14 is on the same maturity level as a human in their early twenties due to her Togruta DNA?? We don’t know, it’s never stated other than Anakin saying something about because of her advanced skills he forgets how young she is.

Obviously Boba Fett is treated like an adult by other Bounty Hunters - no one even questions when he picks up a job and is placed in charge of a group at age 12 or 13 (and he is placed in an adult prison without anyone questioning it). It could be that by law according to Star Wars that 13 is actually considered an adult. Throughout history (and in many different cultures) 13 was when people were considered to be “coming of age”, So, once again we’re placing our cultural biases onto a fictional space fantasy world without realizing it might not even be an issue in that world.

But even beyond all of that I ask you again - what else should the Jedi have done?

Their young Padawans would eventually have to grow into Jedi Knights, even before the war by the time they are teenagers they usually followed their Masters on missions (often very dangerous missions) in order to get real world experience. At the time of the Clone Wars the real world they were living in was one at war. If they hadn’t brought their Padawans onto the battlefield how else would they have learned how to strategize, or how to cope with the emotions of battle? They would’ve been ill prepared if the war had continued on for years and years as it had looked like it was going to do...once again, the Jedi had no real choice in this.

5. The Jedi lost their way because of the war:

Did they though?? I’d argue they actually didn’t. We first have to ask ourselves what is a Jedi - well, according to the very first time we hear any type of a description about a Jedi they are introduced as the “Guardians of Peace and Justice for the Republic” I don’t see how the war took that away from them.

The Oxford definition of Guardian is a defender, protector, or keeper. I fail to see how the Jedi stopped being any of these things because of the war.

Here’s the bottom line, the Jedi’s biggest mistake was that they fell for a plot 1,000 years in the making. The Sith spent over a millenia perfecting/hatching this plan, there was nothing the Jedi could’ve done to prevent the war by the time the trap was sprung. As always, I’m not saying the Jedi were perfect (I hate that I have to always specify that when I argue that the Jedi were good), all I’m saying is they tried to do the most good that they could with the situation they fell into - few groups/characters can claim the same thing.

Everyone seems to forget that the Sith controlled BOTH SIDES to that war, there was nothing - absolutely NOTHING the Jedi could’ve done that would’ve changed or won that war. So, instead they saved as many innocent lives as they could and to me, that’s very Jedi.

#star wars #jedi #Clone Wars #jedi appreciation #jedi positivity #jedi positive #pro jedi #stop blaming the jedi #meta #rant post #war #The Clone Wars #attack of the clones #jedi culture #jedi council appreciation #jedi did not deserve genocide

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beybladefanboy · 3 years

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Overanalyzing Ryuga and Kenta’s Travel Path in Metal Fury

So I’ve been wondering about this for a while. In episode 7, Ryuga and Kenta are in a place that I could tell was supposed to be in the Middle East considering the desert landscape and the look of the city and people:

And the fact that they named a blader “King Indus.” Of course, I don’t know how accurately they’re presenting the Middle East (since I’ve never been there), I could just tell it was what they were trying to present. However, I didn’t know where exactly in the Middle East this was until my friend @kaihitawari5977 informed me in a chat that they’re in Mohenjo-Daro, a historical site is in Pakistan. The resemblance is there and rewatching the episode, they also say “Mohenjo village” at one point so it’s safe to assume that it’s canon that that’s where they are during the tournament in the first half of this episode.

The second half is where things get tricky. Ryuga and Kenta remain in a desert for the most part but there are a few points in the episode where they’re suddenly in a forest/jungle.

Pakistan is only about 2% jungle. I’d be willing to let this slide if these two didn’t end up in jungles every other jump cut. There’s also the fact that while in one of these jungles, they of course see a tiger so we can have this famous scene:

However, there are no tigers in Pakistan, they’re extinct in the wild. This could be the creators just not knowing jack about Pakistan and just including a tiger so Ryuga can look like a badass scaring one off. However, this show was created during the age of the Internet where stuff like this could easily be Googled. Plus, I’d like to give the show the benefit of the doubt so my guess is that in the second half of this episode, Ryuga and Kenta are in India. It shares a border with Pakistan and Mohenjo-Daro isn’t too terribly far from that border:

It also just makes more sense for this part of the episode. India has much more jungle than Pakistan (about 20% more), still has deserts, and tigers are endangered there so while encountering one might be rare, it’s not impossible and Ryuga and Kenta were in a very wild looking area. On top of that, mangoes grow there :

Yeah they grow in Pakistan too but they grow more in India. Plus I just wanted to show this picture of Ryuga eating a mango. It’s cute :)

Now onto the next episode: Showdown at The Tower of Babel! This episode for sure takes place in Iraq, as that’s where the Tower of Babel is. However, that does present a bit of a problem:

As you can see, Iraq is quite a ways away from India and Pakistan, especially considering Ryuga and Kenta were travelling on foot. It would take weeks. Beyblade is pretty vague about the passage of time and Ryuga is kind of insane so it’s not impossible. Plus, Ryuga can debatably teleport.

Speaking of which, the next time we see Ryuga and Kenta is in the Beyster Island tournament. Beyster Island is clearly based on Easter Island and... well...

Yeah, Ryuga being able to teleport isn’t completely canon. It’s never directly stated how Ryuga is able to disappear and reappear in flashes of lightning the way he does and sure, it’s silly and you can come up with explanations that aren’t teleportation. In my opinion however, it is the only explanation for how he and Kenta went from the Middle East to Easter Island, which is pretty much on the other side of the world. They were not seen taking the boat like the others were and there didn’t seem to be any other way to get there. Plus, this is how they appear there:

Unlike some of the other times Ryuga teleports, this doesn’t seem like it can be a trick. So Ryuga somehow knew about the Beyster Island tournament and decided to go there on his search for the Legendary Bladers. It’s ridiculous but it makes more sense than Ryuga and Kenta crossing an ocean on foot.

Then finally, we see Ryuga and Kenta in The God of Destruction's Revival, seemingly in walking distance from the Mayan Temple where Nemesis is revived as they get there only an episode after the others do. That temple is in Mexico meaning after the Beyster Island tournament, Ryuga and Kenta went to the mainland and ended up in Mexico.

So in conclusion, Ryuga and Kenta’s travel path looks something like this:

With the red lines being walked distance and the black lines being teleported distance. Obviously these locations are approximate and doesn’t account for anywhere they might have gone off-screen. This combined with the fact that in Masters, Ryuga visited Italy and the United States makes me think Ryuga either abuses his semi-canon teleporting skills or Doji’s credit card had a crap ton of money on it. Either way, he’s cheating at life.

I love him <3

#beyblade #beyblade metal saga #beyblade metal fight #metal fury #beyblade metal fury #metal fury is underrated #overanalzying beyblade #ryuga #ryuga kishatu #kenta yumiya #ryuga and kenta #kenta and ryuga

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lacrimosathedark · 3 years

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Hamilton Inaccuracies/Corrections (because why not?)

Okay so, I saw a post on reddit that was like, “what’s some inaccuracies in Hamilton off the top of your head?” and I got a whole bunch...and then I had to double check to make sure if I was right...and I’m pretty long-winded...and now I have this 5,000ish word monstrosity. And apparently you can only post 1000 characters at a time on reddit. Laaaaame. So here’s some Hamilton facts I’ve gathered in my brain. Since it was kinda off the top of my head despite being so long, it’s kinda vague in some places, so if anyone wants to expand on anything (or correct me if I oopsed somewhere) please do! Though nicely please.

Also I am also awful at citing things, but I know I learned some of this from @john-laurens and @ciceroprofacto so thank you.

LET’S BEGIN!

Act 1

Rachel Faucette was not a prostitute, but she was a “whore” in the sense that she did what she fucking wanted with her body. During her first marriage she may or may not have been sleeping around, but she refused to stay with John Lavien, her husband, anymore. So he had her arrested. And he could do that. Because patriarchy and theocracy. And she was essentially put in solitary confinement. You can see why she tried to leave, right? She tried to get their marriage annulled or get a divorce. I forget what the issue was but she couldn’t and eventually she just moved to another island where she met James Hamilton.

The intro song makes it seem like Alexander was an only child. He actually had an older brother, James Jr., but he kinda fucked off after their mother died, working and taking care of himself. They also had an older half-brother Peter Lavien, but I don’t think they really knew him other than as the son of their mother’s abusive ex who took everything from them when she died. John Lavien was able to do that because when Rachel was with James Hamilton, she had not been able to get legally divorced from him so she wasn’t really married to James Hamilton, so James Jr. and Alexander were illegitimate ie bastards. He was an asshole. I don't think Peter had anything against the Hamiltons, but I think he grew up to be a Loyalist so. He actually made some trouble in South Carolina for Henry Laurens, John's dad! But I think I read somewhere he also left money for Alex and James Jr. In his will, which is sweet.

This is more visual since it’s not specified in the song, but in the show, Hamilton’s cousin mimes hanging himself. Peter Lytton’s cause of death if I recall was inconclusive, but he was in his bed and there was a lot of blood. So, yeah, he didn’t hang himself.

Alexander did not punch the bursar. However he did return to Princeton later during the war and blew a canon through the school and apparently decapitated a painting of King George lololol. He was under orders, but yknow. Probably felt pretty good after he was rejected for accelerated courses. He wasn’t the only bastard rejected, though! Ben Franklin’s bastard son was too. The guy in charge of admissions, Witherspoon, hated bastards as a concept and Princeton was a very religious school at the time I believe.

It may have been the plan by Aaron and Esther Burr for Aaron Jr to graduate Princeton, but like, he couldn’t really be sure of that? He was like 2 years old when they died, and his older sister Sally was 4 I believe, maybe 5.

Hercules Mulligan met Alex in 1772. His older brother Hugh knew Alex’s old employer in St. Croix and helped him get to mainland America. Alex and Hercules lived together for a long while, and Hercules is actually who got him interested in the revolution.

John Laurens was in England in 1776. He wouldn’t meet Hamilton and Lafayette until he accepted his post as Washington’s aide-de-camp upon his return in August of 1777.

Lafayette couldn’t have met Hamilton before August 1777 because that’s when he met Washington, and he was appointed as a volunteer to the Continental Army only a week prior, and before that he had been in France. But Lafayette later declared their relationship to be like that of brothers, Alexander his closest connection in the states besides Washington.

Lafayette admired and absolutely adored Laurens and they were besties, but neither of them knew Mulligan. They may have met in passing, or heard about him from Hamilton, but nothing more.

“Lafayette” was actually a nickname based on his title of “Marquis de la Fayette”. In his autobiography, he wrote: “It’s not my fault I was baptized like a Spaniard, with the name of every conceivable saint who might offer me more protection in battle.” I’m glad he thought it was funny at least. His name is Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de la Fayette.

Hercules Mulligan is not known to fuck horses.

The Revolution had already sorta started. Actually, Hercules and Alexander had been part of local militias before 1776.

This is more of a miscommunication since the actors are close in age, though the lyrics try to get it across. There’s a reason Mulligan says he’s got the others “in loco parentis”. In 1776 Hamilton and Lafayette would have been 19, Laurens would have been 22, and Mulligan would have been 36.

I think we all know “Laurens, I like you a lot” does not cover the scope of their relationship but that’s rather self explanatory so unless someone asks I’ll leave it at that. And for other clarifications. But at the very least I’ll share this: Anyone who saw them knew they were like attached at the hip (without knowing how attached *winkwonk*) and you could almost always contact one through the other. Laurens was notoriously bad at answering letters, to Hamilton too (and Alex did bitch about it because he is insecure and needs love), but it became quickly known he got back to Hamilton fastest so people would be like “Tell Laurens I said hi!” or “Hey, I need to get these to Laurens, you send them to him.” Which is hilarious. I just imagine Alexander going, “Why me?”

While all of them are Revolutionaries, Laurens is the only one you could solidly call an abolitionist, and Mulligan’s even shaky on the manumission part. He was supposedly part of the Manumission Society Hamilton helped start, but Mulligan also personally owned slaves and was never known to have freed them (One helped him with spy shit. His name was Cato!). In fairness, Hamilton and Lafayette wholeheartedly agreed with Laurens, and Hamilton was the biggest supporter of his battalion plan, and both of them did try to continue working towards equality after the war, but it was never the top priority for either of them and their lives kinda went to hell, so it fell to the wayside. Lafayette actually did some nifty stuff worth looking at, and Hamilton might have tried to keep one of John Lauren’s freed men from Henry Laurens! But as slavery stuck around for a while, it clearly wasn’t anything significant.

Angelica would meet and befriend Thomas Jefferson in Europe, but she would never manage to convince him to put women in a sequel because he’s a huge misogynist and told her in multiple letters that politics isn’t for women and I think he deserves a shoe up his southern backside. Side note, it always bothered me that Lin played up the misogyny in the musical. I mean, yeah, all of them would be misogynists compared to us, but for their time, Hamilton wasn’t so bad. If there was anyone to play up misogyny with, it was Jefferson, because he would tell Angelica for years and years that politics could never make women happy, and that the women in France were foolish for trying etc.. Hamilton would actually discuss politics with Angelica frequently and openly. And there’s a proto-feminist in the cast that was never recognized—Aaron Burr! He respected Theodosia Sr. as an equal and she was his most valuable political ally, and he made sure Theodosia Jr. got the same education any boy of her time would have. He actually respected women to a decent degree. Not to say he wasn't as much of a ho as Hamilton cuz yeah that's accurate (but they were both disaster bisexuals more on Burr's sexuality later)

Farmer Refuted was an essay Hamilton wrote arguing against Samuel Seabury's posts. They weren't shouting in the public square(but Lin got the sass right. I love his face when Hamilton and Seabury are fighting over the podium). Seabury was also really really old, not young and cute like Thayne, hence the line about "mange". Blech.

General Montgomery didn’t take a bullet in the neck, it was a grapeshot from a canon in his head (and his thighs), but close enough I guess. Side note: Burr actually served a short interim on Washington’s staff, but only for like 10 days because they hated each other lolol.

Alexander didn’t bring Laurens, Mulligan, or Lafayette to Washington. Lafayette joined up with the Continental Army in 1777 and quickly convinced them he wasn’t like the other French nobles; he was a glory-seeking kid with a boner for America (for some reason???). Laurens was requested by Washington to join his military family and he arrived also in August 1777 just after Lafayette. Like previously stated, Mulligan was doing shit even before Hamilton did.

Alexander would not have been in charge of spy shit (though may have been somewhat involved). Washington had people like Mulligan for that, who actually saved Washington a few times. But also, the "King’s men who might let some things slide" was the tactic Mulligan used. He was actually very charming, and his wife was very high in British society and he was a skilled tailor, so they were thought of well among the redcoats, and he got a lot of information through chatting with his customers. He also could usually smooth-talk his way out of trouble. Actually, Mulligan blended in so well, when the war was over, people in the city wanted him out cuz they thought he was a Loyalist. So George fucking Washington paid him a visit and commissioned I think a coat from him, and that cleared that up. He got a LOT of business after that.

Alexander would not be Washington’s right hand man, or at least, not his only one if Lin was using that to mean aide-de-camp. In that case, Laurens would also be Washington’s right hand man, along with many men not named in the musical.

John Laurens may have been reliable with the ladies (comes with the territory of being hot, rich, and a perfect gentleman), but he most certainly didn’t want to be. His father noted, rather proudly at the time, that as a young teenager he expressed no interest in girls. John was also married by 1780, and at least Alexander knew. (he told John he'd found out in the well-known April 1779 letter. You know... “Cold in my professions...find me a wife...the length of my nose...” That one.) Because John apparently didn't tell people he was married. Laurens. Sweetheart. Get. Your. Shit. Together.

John also would not be at this ball. February 1779 to March 1780 he is fighting down south, and this ball was early 1780.

The tomcat thing may be half true. Martha Washington did supposedly name a cat Hamilton, but it was an affectionate thing. The slang tomcat meaning ho wasn’t a thing at that time, so it couldn’t be named to tease Alex for his promiscuity. I believe this was one of the many things John Adams made up to slander Hamilton.

Hamilton and Eliza had met before 1780. They had met once two years prior at a dinner her father had hosted. Also, Hamilton had been courting her friend Kitty Livingston, and his friend and fellow aide Tench Tilghman had been attempting to court Eliza, and they’d actually done at least one sort-of double date (which is adorable). So this shouldn’t have been the first time they’d seen each other. Could still be when they fell in love, though, since they started courting after this. Which is cute to think about.

Speaking of Tench and Eliza! I don't remember when this took place but Tilghman journaled it, he went out on something of a hike with a few ladies and they got to a cliff. Of course, he had to help the girls climb up. Except Eliza who started climbing by herself like a natural to the bewilderment and likely horror of the other ladies. Elizabeth Schuyler was a bamf okay?

Of course everyone knows by now, Angelica was married before Eliza. During the Winter’s Ball, she’d already eloped with Jack Carter aka John Barker Church and run away to Boston.

Their courtship was not that fast. Not like, weeks. More like months. Fun fact, Eliza is the only of the five (yes FIVE) Schuyler sisters who didn’t elope and actually got her parents permission! But here’s a heartbreaking fun fact: while Alex was courting Eliza, Laurens was taken prisoner and then on probation. He wasn’t allowed to leave the state of Pennsylvania. He was mentally in a very dark place. Alex kind of procrastinated telling Laurens about Eliza, didn’t say he was courting anyone until they were already engaged.

I can't leave this alone if I'm sad you have to be too. Alex was hella depressed during this time too. Of course he was a soldier so he couldn't see Eliza as much as he'd have liked. On top of that, he kept pushing for an exchange for John and kept getting rejected because they couldn't show preference for him. And then Laurens was sending him very few letters, of course, and the ones he did send were very depressed, even suicidal sounding. He had to work while dealing with that. He had to keep begging Eliza to write to him to be reassured that she still liked him.

No one could show up for Hamilton for the wedding. Some sources say fellow aide James McHenry showed up, but he’s the only one. Alexander even invited his deadbeat dad, offered to pay all his travel expenses and everything, guess how that turned out. So Eliza’s side of the hall was packed and his was empty. God, can you imagine how sad that is?

Another heartbreaking fun fact! John Laurens was out of probation and could have made it to the wedding, was invited (Hamilton, I kid you not, jokingly invited him to a threesome with his new wife in a letter: “I wish you were at liberty to transgress the bounds of Pensylvania. I would invite you after the fall to Albany to be witness to the final consummation.” (emphasis is original to Hamilton. As is the misspelling of Pennsylvania. Yes, seriously.)) and John did not go. Instead he went back to work trying to talk his way out of getting sent as an envoy to France and suggesting Alexander to take his place. You know. His boyfriend who just got married. Sure, he was right that Hamilton was better equipped for the job, but yknow. Another fun fact, one of the guys who voted for John to be the one to go to France was John’s ex-boyfriend Francis Kinloch. Who was a turncoat, and had been a royalist when he and Laurens split. How’s that for some twisty bullshit.

Sorry, this one isn’t about the musical, it’s a tangent, I just got excited about that quote. Both that style of innuendo and the misspelling of Pennsylvania are consistent in Hamilton’s writing. Listening to john-lauren’s podcast about the April 1779 letter can really help you understand how Hammy uses innuendo but also I just love listening to it it’s insightful and hilarious and I love John Laurens but y u do this and my heart hurts for Hamilton but he is also a ho but aNYWAY. As for Pensylvania...well, he kinda made that mistake on an important document. ...It’s The Constitution. He misspelled Pennsylvania on The Constitution. No big deal. Not like something that could haunt his legacy forever. Oh my god I’m so sorry.

Philip Schuyler did have sons. Five in fact. Two of them died pretty young though I think, considering there are three kids in a row named John Bradstreet Schuyler. The other two were named Philip Jeremiah and Rensselaer.

Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan were all married before Hamilton. Hercules Mulligan married Elizabeth Sanders in 1773. Lafayette married his beloved Adrienne in 1774. John Laurens was regretfully obliged to marry Martha Manning in 1776.

Sigh. Again with the misogyny. Anyway, I wanted to comment on the marriage as a loss of freedom. From what I can tell, Elizabeth helped Hercules with his spy work at home. John was literally fighting a war across the ocean from his wife, and probably having an illegal affair with Alexander (though to be fair to him, he was kind of running away from Martha because he didn't marry her for love, gosh, there are no winners here). Lafayette absolutely adored his wife but still was also fighting a war an ocean away, and had multiple affairs, at least one with his wife’s blessing. So yeah, losing your freedom with marriage? Bullshit.

Despite where it is in the musical and Eliza singing the beginning, Stay Alive is roughly about Valley Forge, which would be December of 1777 through June of 78. So before the ball and wedding. (Fun fact! A lot of people theorize Valley Forge as when Hamilton and Laurens’ relationship may have escalated into romantic and/or sexual territory. They may have had more privacy, as small temporary buildings were being made to better withstand the cold, and Hamilton was sick a lot during that time and did need tending a lot. West Indian boi did not like Northern winter.) But yeah, Congress being stupid and the army resorting to eating their horses sometimes and not being able to buy food and equipment? All true. It was a real bad winter.

Mulligan wouldn’t have to go back to New York, he never would have left. He remained there as a tailor and a spy throughout the war. He wouldn’t have been traveling with Washington.

Hamilton and Laurens didn't write essays so much as start working out John's battalion plan and writing letters trying to push for it.

This duel happened in 1778, so like. This timeline is so fucky.

Stay Alive makes it seem like Hamilton was the one who wanted to duel Lee, but it was 100% Laurens from the start. The off-Broadway version demonstrates it a bit better. Hamilton was Lauren's second to save his ass. Hamilton had a rough relationship with Washington, but Laurens admired him greatly and would have willingly defended his commander’s honor. John was a Good Boy who always bowed his head to his asshole father, even at first for his battalion plan, but John wouldn’t let even his father talk shit about Washington. Fun fact about this duel, Alex and John were late to the duel because they “got lost in the woods”. Oooookay. Suuuuuuure. And Baron von Steuben was straight. (Fact: Steuben was very gay and pretty much pushed out of Europe for it. And he actually also had challenged Lee! They talked things out before this.)

Aaron Burr was not Charles Lee’s second. His second was a Major Evan Edwards. Lin wanted a parallel with the final duel. To be fair, that was a really cool way to do it and I like it better that way.

Alexander Hamilton could NOT agree that duels are dumb and immature. He was in 10 duel challenges as a participant in his lifetime, 9 of which he was the challenger. One time he challenged two people at once. One time he challenged an entire politcal party apparently. No, I am not kidding. He had a bad day. And I think you know the one time he wasn’t the challenger.

Lee did not yield on the first shot, nor was Laurens satisfied. Lee was pretty much like, “It’s just a flesh wound!” and wanted to go another round and Laurens agreed, but Hamilton and Edwards managed to talk them down. Yes he was shot in the side. But that wasn’t all because Laurens absolutely roasted Lee at his court martial.

Lee: Were you ever in an action before?

Laurens: I have been in several actions; I did not call that an action, as there was no action previous to the retreat.

I love this man. So much. The sass of this man.

We don’t know if Washington was angry about the duel with Lee. We do know that Laurens, and probably Hamilton, had Christmas dinner with him two days later. When Hamilton left, it was because Washington had snapped over a misunderstanding (caused by Lafayette actually, and he really tried to make it better because Lafayette is a sweetheart), and then continued to deny Hamilton the command he requested, and he resigned. It was entirely unrelated to the duel and Laurens. However, the daddy issues are real.

I don’t know if Lafayette went to France for more funds and came back with more guns, but Laurens certainly did! Ben Franklin told him to chill, but he actually got super impatient and ended up supposedly disrespecting and maybe kinda threatening the court, demanding what he needed, and walking out. They were were kind of shocked and impressed into giving more than had been requested. Any existing deities bless John Laurens. I love him.

Lafayette actually nominated his own aide to lead the charge and Hamilton appealed for himself and Washington finally gave in to Hamilton.

Laurens was not in South Carolina. When he finally got back from France, he was sent to Yorktown. He actually was commanding the group Alexander led. (Power couple lol) He also helped with negotiations after the battle. Also, supposedly making the British play ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ on their way out was Laurens’ idea because boy is made of sass and spite.

Henry Laurens would not have sent a letter to Hamilton about John’s death. Even if he would have, he couldn’t. At that time, he’d been locked up in the Tower of London as a prisoner. We have no idea when or how Alexander found out, or who might have told him. We know he wrote to Nathanael Greene on October 25 and Lafayette on November 3 (literally 2 months after Laurens' death), and the mentions of Laurens were very short. It’s thought that he really couldn’t talk about Laurens. People have compared it to the stories of how Benjamin Tallmadge apparently couldn’t hear Nathan Hale’s name without crying.

After Yorktown Alexander resigned and John went down south to flush British troops out of the southern states. His group was ambushed at Combahee River and he decided to charge instead of wait for backup and he died. Many people think it was a combination of his usual recklessness, suicidality, and glory-seeking mixed with a desperation with the war coming to an end. It was such a small skirmish. He deserved better. He left his daughter, Frances, whom he had never met, orphaned, as her mother had died months earlier from sickness. She was adopted by John’s oldest younger sister, also coincidentally Martha Laurens (though married was Martha Laurens Ramsay).

The Levi Weeks case was years later than that, in 1800, though it was alongside Burr. Hamilton actually lost his first trial as a defense lawyer and was not with Burr.

The whole conversation where Hamilton proposes Burr help him write the Federalist Papers is fake. Lin made that up entirely.

John Church’s wealth kinda...varies. He was a gambler. At first, he was actually in quite a bit of debt. He did make it big eventually and he and Angelica moved to Europe. He really didn’t seem to be a lot of fun to most people, but Angelica eloped with him. She chose him against her father’s wishes. I don’t get why Lin kept writing lines saying she didn’t love him, at least at first. He also does this in the cut song Congratulations where she says “I languished in a loveless marriage” bish you eloped wat She also lived as a socialite and was adored by anyone who met her apparently, so like???? da fuq Lin. Didja really do Laurens dirty for these lies or at the very least uncertanties? Could you not prop up that romance without making her say she hates her husband?

Act 2

More of a personality miscommunication. Irl Thomas Jefferson was shy, quiet, and hypersensitive, nothing like how Daveed plays him. If you knew a guy like the real Jefferson in real life you might be endeared to him out of pity or because he seems sweet, but in the short time of a musical that would immediately be read as cold and unlikable. So the best way to portray “this guy is a likable asshole” is to make him loud and made of sass which is what Daveed does magnificently. So, not at all accurate to real Jefferson, but gets the concept of him across.

Thomas was not off getting high with the French. Probably. He was making negotiations for the Revolution. And abusing Sally Hemings (his, at the time, 14 year old slave, who was also his sister-in-law, and 30 years his junior, and was brought along to entertain his daughter). And actually probably chatting up with Angelica!

By the time Philip was 9, he had two sisters, Angelica (7) and his foster/adopted sister Frances Antill (6), but he also had two brothers already, Alexander Jr. (5) and James Alexander (3), with maybe another one on the way since William Stephen would be born next year.

The whole comma thing is backwards. It was Angelica who made the initial mistake. Hamilton pointedly and flirtatiously teased her about it before closing it with “Adieu ma chere, soeur” French for “Goodbye my dear, sister”. So it’s more playful and less lovey dovey in context, so the tone is all wrong. It’s not romantic, it’s teasing and snarky.

Say No To This feels like it’s over quick. The affair lasted a year, not just the summer Eliza was away.

Clermont Street wasn’t renamed until many years later.

I don’t know that Alex has always considered Burr a friend. Irl they weren’t as close, and Hamilton was keenly aware of how slimy Burr could be.

Lafayette was NOT fine. He was imprisoned a lot during the French Revolution, the poor man, and many members of his wife’s family were killed. HOWEVER! Hamilton was not just sitting by. Angelica and her husband did make an attempt to rescue Lafayette, and the Hamiltons fostered Lafayette’s son Georges Washington Lafayette (yes that was his actual name). So Hamilton also did not forget Lafayette.

Not all his defendants got acquitted, obviously. Stop being cocky, Ham.

People comment on how Jefferson whines about Hamilton’s fashion sense while literally dressed in violet velvet. The original plan was to have him in browns, but Daveed is just such a friggin star that they just had to give him something brighter and decided to go with a Prince-inspired look. Originally the browns were going to be representative of his supposed representation of farmers. Though note here: Jefferson’s agricultural representation is much the same as modern Republicans’ rural representation. More for show.

Actually, let's get political for a sec. I've done some research in my hyperfixation and in searches for Hamilton shiz I've ended up stumbling into far-right nonsense and I know how to recognize the degrees of nonsense from years of actually paying attention to it now because this is what I do apparently. Which is weird, right? Lin kinda portrays him like a lefty. Well, here's the thing. Any proud historically educated Republican will tell you that their roots are in the Federalist Party. Which is technically true. What they will neglect to mention is the flip between parties that happened when the Republicans decided to use southerners racism to their advantage in elections. Being subtly racist can get the racists and the non-racists on your side! Yeah, it's gross. Federalists are more like Democrats. The corporatists. They clearly care more about companies and Wall Street, but they put actual action into social progress on rare occasion. Democratic-Republicans are like Republicans, conservatives who don't want social change and rail against it and pretend they aren't for corporate interests while being just as bad as the other guys. But Republicans have a tendency to rewrite history to paint themselves as the good guys, or reclaim things that aren't theirs as their own. Just look at the Civil War! Or...literally just...America I guess. Yikes. But yeah, here's your warning. Don't just go looking at and trusting things labelled Federalist. It likely won't be friendly.

John Adams didn’t fire Hamilton, Hamilton left. Eventually. And this is not the only time this kind of verbal confrontation happens, and not the one that destroys the Federalist Party. That actually happens after the Reynolds Pamphlet. But John Adams hates Alexander Hamilton with the burning passion of a thousand suns and really kinda earns this.

I’m not sure if he specifically called Alex a Creole bastard but I wouldn’t be surprised, there were other similar racist and bastard-related insults. You know the tomcat thing mentioned above. He started the rumor of the affair with Angelica. He accused him of being a rake (male version of whore at the time). He also may have behind closed doors accused him of being a sodomite. His (probably gay) son Charles helped with that one, bringing back rumors from a dinner he had with Hamilton (who he was working for) and John Church because Church joked about Alex being fond of a guy. Adams probably thought working for Hamilton was what made his son gay and alcoholic (Charles was an alcoholic and may have died in part because of that; Hamilton was not an alcoholic, but he supposedly could not hold his drink. He was smol).

Jefferson, Madison, and Burr didn’t accuse Hamilton of speculation. It was James Monroe, Abraham Venable, and Frederick Muhlenberg. Lin wanted to keep consistent representation of the Democratic-Republican party. But anyway, the whole thing went to hell because Monroe sent the letters to Jefferson (or I’ve also heard Monroe gave them to Madison who sent them to Jefferson) who, the spiteful gangly fucker, started spreading rumors because fuck Hamilton, amirite? Hamilton challenged Monroe to a duel over that. And who stopped this duel? Aaron Burr. He gets to be the good guy now and then.

It wasn’t just total strangers that got Alex off the island. He was sponsored by his cousin Ann Lytton and his teacher Reverend Hugh Knox. Also, he was kind of expected to get an education and come back and help out the island...guess what he never did. Oops.

This one I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure. I think Eliza was upstate with her family when the Reynolds Pamphlet was released, away from Alex. I also know she had recently given birth to their son, William Stephen. A lot of people think Alexander had been keeping that in mind. Eliza had had a miscarriage once before, when she was under a lot of stress and alone and with the kids and he had to be away (Whiskey Rebellion), so some people think he made sure she was surrounded by her family and waited until the child was born to drop this on her, and gave her distance from him if she needed it. At least he knew he fucked up, and he really did love her.

Those weren’t Alexander’s guns. They belonged to John Church.

It was quite some time between Philip’s challenge and the actual duel.

Another age miscommunication; Eacker was 27ish and Philip was 19 when the duel happened. There was a whole 8 years between them!

Eacker didn’t shoot early. Actually, both of them stood staring at each other for a really long time doing nothing. But Philip went to make a move and Eacker shot him.

Alex and Eliza had made up from the Reynolds Pamphlet bullshit before Philip died. When he passed, Eliza was already pregnant with the son they would also name Philip in honor of his older brother.

Hamilton wasn’t really the deciding factor in the election of 1800. But he did say that about Burr and it did help swing the vote somewhat. But also, this was before Philip died. Philip died in 1801.

If a vote is that close, you can’t win in a landslide??? That’s not how words work???? Mister Miranda????? You are a writer??????? Sir???????

Burr actually held a term as Jefferson’s Vice President.

The Burr vs Hamilton Duel was in 1804 and was actually about another election and other things Hamilton was saying about him. Burr was running to be governor of New York and lost but heard about Alexander telling people the things he listed Alexander saying in Your Obedient Servant.

Thayne should not have played Alexander’s doctor. Sydney should have played Alexander’s doctor. Do you know why? Philip and Alexander had the same doctor when they died. Alexander took that doctor with him to the duel. His name was David Hosack.

While there’s evidence to suggest Burr experienced immediate regret (he stepped forward as if wanting to see if Hamilton was okay and supposedly asked after him and wished him well before Alexander passed) in the years that followed, until he was on his death bed, he expressed nothing but neutrality or even pride for having shot Hamilton. The ‘the world was wide enough’ comment could plausibly be entirely made up, and even if it were true, it was supposedly said toward the end of Burr’s life. Burr's life was quite a ride after Alex. He tried to make like his own empire out of Texas, and then of course was tried for treason, but he got out of that, but then everyone hated him for that ON TOP OF already hating him for killing Hamilton, so he had some crazy journey around Europe for a while. He kept a journal, writing entries like letters to Theo. The most notable things I think he writes he'd "been amused for an hour with a very handsome young Dane. Don't smile. It is a male!" which implies maybe Theodosia knew her dad was bi and was at least amused by it? And he spent a while living with Jeremy Bentham, who is generally accepted to have been gay (if you want more Burr gayness look into Jonathan Bellamy and Robert Troup. Troup knew Hamilton too!). Unrelated to his sexuality but I find it important, Burr spent, in modern cash, $40 on a coconut, in his own words, "like an ass." He returned to America eventually. I dont remember if it was before or after his foreign adventures, but his beloved grandson (also named Aaron Burr) died, and then not long after, Theodosia was lost at sea on her way to visit her dad. No one knows what happened to her. It's so sad. Anyway he married a wealthy widow named Eliza, spent all her money on charity, and died the day their divorce was finalized. And Eliza Jumel's divorce lawyer was Alexander Hamilton Jr..

Poor Eliza couldn’t go through all of her husband’s papers. Her son, John Church Hamilton, finished the work for her when she no longer could and put together the biography that inspired Chernow’s that inspired Lin’s musical. (He named a son Alexander and a daughter Elizabeth. He even named one of his sons Laurens! Aw.) And we have come full circle.

The End :33

There’s probably more but that’s what I’ve got. Thanks for reading!

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edith-moonshadow · 3 years

Text

So based on this post I've written a one-shot about Steve thinking that he’s an Alpha because he has a big dick (yeah I don’t know why either.) I’ve given it a quick edit so hopefully I haven’t missed anything but it’s just a quick story and I’ve so many other things to sort out so I don’t have a lot of time.

This story does involve mentions of Steve with other people (of the female variety but not in any great detail except for maybe one instance) while he tries to work out what he wants so if that isn’t your jam I guess either skip all together or skim until you get to Tina’s Halloween party as this story is season two canon divergent (no monsters and no one dies.)

Hopefully it’s still enjoyable it’s just the madness that my brain decided to go on after reading a post about people always talking about Steve’s dick, I wish I had it as I’d link it but that was the general gist.

I also have no idea what to call this I wrote in on Google Doc’s as Big Dick Steve ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Warnings: Alpha Beta Omega Dynamics, Alpha Billy, Omega Steve, Top Billy, Bottom Steve, Steve’s Big Dick, Marking, Manhandling, Biting, Dirty Talk, Fingering, Oral Sex, Rimming, Anal Sex, Mentions Of Painful Sex, Billy Hargrove Being An Asshole

From the time he'd hit puberty Steve always believed that he was going to be an Alpha there hadn’t been a Beta in his family for generations, he was tall, athletic and very well endowed. He remembered when everyone got to that age where they started to notice certain things about each other and the other boys stole glances at him in the showers they either raised their eyebrows sometimes with a low whistle to make the others laugh or they quickly averted their eyes with a tightening of their jaw. When Steve realised how much bigger he was he had conflicting feelings one part was pride, another was fear that he would be different from everyone else, what if he intimidated people away and the last was frustration when he realised how uncomfortable clothes could be.

For a while he was hyper-focused on it, could feel it every time he moved and knew that people in the halls of the school were talking about him as though his cock were the most interesting thing about him. Finally, he just learned to accept that it was a part of him and it wouldn’t matter outside of who he was dating or more accurately sleeping with. Finally, sex became a part of his life and again his cock became a hindrance, everyone else he knew had decent first times, maybe it was a bit awkward but they mostly talked about how good it felt to be inside someone.

Steve looked forward to this he’d been dating Lisa Smith for three weeks when he finally convinced her to try something, she’d been a little nervous but once he’d pulled his half-hard cock out, a little fear had entered her eyes and the most he got was her shaky hand giving him a barely-there touch until he pretended to come hoping to make her feel better, it was very disappointing.

This set the tone for several more experiences although some of his dates were a little more eager they struggled to take him, which was painful for him and them and it made him feel even less confident about ever having a sex life. He remembered the day that another boy who was a senior from the basketball team called Eddie had taken him aside and told him a few things he could to help him out. Steve was a little shocked but Eddie was a well-known ladies man and he appreciated his advice.

The first time he went down on his then-girlfriend Susan she had been very reluctant but he persevered and although it was a clumsy attempt she seemed to enjoy herself so he kept practising until soon she was begging him for it. He felt so good that he had another person begging for him and after a while, he asked about trying to go all the way. She agreed but again things went badly as she struggled to take him more than halfway without it being very painful. So next time he got her as relaxed as he could, he made her come several times and finally he managed to get all the way inside. He felt so proud but the sex itself didn’t feel that amazing to him, he wondered if he was different from everyone else after all.

Soon half his year had presented, he hadn’t developed his knot yet and he secretly dreaded it, if his dick was big now what would it be like with a knot? To the other Alpha’s in his year, he acted as though he’d already popped a knot and then his teammate Ryan asked him if he’d ever been with an Omega and he hadn’t. Ryan insisted that he should go with an Omega. He wouldn't regret it so he decided he’d try it.

In Hawkins no one talked about their status, it was considered incredibly impolite to do so especially amongst their parents, generally based on someones demeanour and physical attributes people just assumed. Teenagers had to play a guessing game when asking someone out but once you were with someone it was a standard question to ask, generally all Omega’s wanted an Alpha but would settle for a Beta and most Alpha’s weren’t too fussy, at least the ones he knew.

Betty Rose was a petite blonde girl with a sweet face and pretty green eyes, she always blushed when he spoke to her, but as he got to know her better she had a wicked sense of humour and loved the same music he did so he asked her out. They had been going out a week when Steve had her in the back of his car, music playing low as he placed soft kisses over her neck as she squirmed in his lap. He’d learned very early on that Betty had a very sensitive neck, a few harsh kisses there and she melted against him. He introduced his teeth to her neck feeling her shudder as a little moan escaped her lips then she suddenly went stock still, completely rigid in his arms before she tried to pull away.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing I just need to go home…”

Steve looked at the clock on his dash it was only nine-thirty and a Saturday night but when he said this she insisted so he took her home it was only when he arrived home himself that he realised that he had a small wet patch on the thigh of his jeans. He was confused at first but the next time he was alone with Betty he discovered the truth, she was an Omega. She seemed a little embarrassed about the fact but Steve assured her that it was fine and secretly he was excited. Hopefully, this would be the answer to all his prayers.

They continued to see each other for another week before Betty whispered in his ear that she wanted more and Steve was only too happy to oblige her. He decided that he’d show off his superior oral skills and was amazed by how wet and open she became, how every little touch seemed to ignite something within her and for the first time he started to get excited.

He’d felt a little nervous the first time they slept together because he started to build the experience up inside his head but instead of frightened when she saw how big he was Betty’s eyes had lit up, she was receptive to everything he did and when they finally had sex she couldn’t get enough, she begged him for more, called him Alpha and never seemed to experience any pain or discomfort. Afterwards, she’d told him that he’d felt amazing, it was everything she’d ever wanted and she wanted him to through her first heat with her so that he could knot her. Steve was on cloud nine for days, he felt fully proud for the first time, all his fears evaporated but unfortunately, that made him think about his dick a little too much and he ended up cheating on Betty with two other Omegas. Still, now he thought about the heartbroken look in her eyes before she ran away and he vowed never to do that again.

For a while he chose to swear off relationships, he had a reputation now, one that would have horrified him when he was younger but now it gave him a little swagger, they called him ‘King Steve’ partially because he was popular but part it was to do with the one thing that everyone at Hawkins High knew about him. He stuck mostly to Omegas but did still indulge in Betas every once in a while and he’d learned enough tricks that with most of them he could have a satisfactory experience. The only downside was that he started to feel a little hollow, the people who slept with him were interested in his dick, his popularity, his free house, and the drink that he provided at little get-togethers at his house, usually in that order. He just wanted someone to be interested in him, ask him questions, get to know him and spend time outside of his bedroom or pool.

Then he noticed Nancy Wheeler, she was smart, sweet and beautiful and she didn’t hang around with any of the other popular kids, she was perfect. He turned on his charm and started to speak to her, he made himself a little cocky, a little self-deprecating and hinted about his free house. Finally, she came to a gathering and to his delight she seemed open to his advances, he learned that night that she was a Beta but even though she was a virgin she was fearless and everything felt amazing. He felt connected to her in a way he hadn’t previously and he knew she must have had a good time because his sheets were soaked with slick, he’d never been with anyone who produced that much before, he didn’t even know that Beta’s could produce slick.

He also got his wish as she seemed interested in him as a person, helped him to study and better himself and he started to move away from the popular crowd, he only wanted to be with her. An argument with his best friend Tommy about how much time he was spending with her led to the end of their friendship and Tommy took it very badly, turning people against him and just being an asshole every time they were in the same room. Steve was disappointed and sad that his friend couldn’t be happy for him but he felt like Tommy had been using him for years and dragging him down to his level so he just got lost in Nancy.

They were together for a year, it was a wonderful time, he continued to improve as a person and everything about him became so wrapped up in her that he didn’t realise that she was unhappy, that she’d started to fall for someone else until it was too late.

Tina’s Halloween party was the beginning of the end for them, Nancy seemed determined to have a good time that night, drinking herself into a stupor and letting him know plainly for the first time about her dissatisfaction. Steve was so wrapped up in his feelings that he barely noticed Tommy parading around the new kid who’d just come to town Billy Hargrove, he was an intimidating Alpha with an intense stare. Steve was used to Alpha’s being territorial and Tommy had found an ally in this Alpha. Steve still hadn’t popped a knot yet but Nancy being a Beta wasn’t interested in knots so he had barely thought about it but standing in front of two people he knew were Alpha’s made it come unbidden to his mind. Why hadn’t he presented yet? For most people, it was around the ages of fifteen or sixteen but he was now eighteen, months away from graduating high school and no knot yet.

He walked away from their jeers, who cared about being the keg king. What were they fifteen-year-olds having their first keg party? He had bigger problems such as Nancy telling him she didn’t love him, he felt a pain in his chest and he got Jonathan to take her home so that he could be alone for a while. He’d never felt this way about another person and it seemed as though he was destined to always be alone.

School the next week was the worst that it had been in a while, he had no Nancy and with the introduction of Billy the other Alpha’s had suddenly become a lot more vicious especially with Tommy as their ring leader, they seemed to sense the blood in the water, the slow painful death of his relationship which would finally leave him all alone. Yet there was still a little restraint from them, they’d all grown up together known each other since elementary school so they held back wanting to hurt him, let him know that he never should have abandoned them but they didn’t seem to want to hurt him too badly.

Billy didn’t seem to share that sentiment, he was constantly in Steve’s personal space, during practice his body was slammed so violently against his that Billy’s hip bones left bruises on his skin. His sweat-slicked body rubbed against his until all he could smell was Billy, his scent completely permeated his senses until Steve felt a little lightheaded and couldn’t wait to hit the showers so that he could get rid of it. Billy growled demeaning things in his ear, his teeth snapping after the words as though he wanted to rip Steve’s throat out. By the end of practice he felt so disorientated, it all seemed a bit extreme to him, he wasn’t going to fight Billy to see who was more popular, he was welcome to it.

He went to the showers in the corner where he was usually left alone these days but to his annoyance, Tommy and Billy decided to join him, Tommy was across from him he just seemed to want to rub a little salt in his wounds about Nancy but Billy was hovering nearby, still too close for Steve’s comfort. Tommy left his shrill laughter echoing off the walls and Steve ignored him trying to get his shower over and done with so he could go home. Just as he rubbed soap all over his face and hair he felt his water being turned off and quickly wiped his eyes so he could look back at Billy who smirked at him when he finally had his attention. He leaned in close, his voice a deep growly whisper.

“Who would have thought that I’d find a pretty little Omega like you in this shit hole town?”

Steve recoiled slightly in shock, whispering back harshly.

“I’m not an Omega.”

Billy studied him intently for a few moments then Steve decided to ignore him by putting his water back on and rinsing out his hair. When all the soap was gone he brushed back his hair with his fingers reaching out for his towel when he was slammed against the wall momentarily stunning him. When he got over his shock he realised that Billy had him pressed up against the wall and a glance at the other stalls showed that they were all alone.

“Why are you pretending not to be an Omega?”

“I’m not pretending.”

Billy watched him carefully for a moment before a smile spread out over his face.

“Princess you can’t be serious…”

He leaned in closer to Steve, his warm wet naked body pressed up against his own as he pressed his nose to Steve’s throat. He could feel his hot breath as he whispered against his skin.

“You just haven’t met the right Alpha yet…”

Steve jumped a quiet moan escaping him when Billy licked over his throat before he slowly scraped his teeth over his pulse point making Steve shudder. Some of his girlfriends had run their fingers over his neck on their way to his hair but no one had ever concentrated on it before. He felt his dick twitch where it was trapped between their bodies and he felt his face heat as his embarrassment set in.

Billy laughed against his skin.

“You were saying, Sweetheart…”

Steve pulled back a little and Billy moved around so that he could stare into his eyes once more, he was mesmerised by how blue they were for a moment.

“You’re rubbing your body against me, it’s an involuntary reaction.”

Billy’s lips turned into a thin line while his eyes hardened but just as he opened his mouth to say something else their coach’s voice rang out through the room asking if anyone was left in the showers and Steve pushed past him, wrapping his towel around himself as he walked quickly into the locker room, he could feel Billy’s eyes on him as he got dressed but Billy was captured by other members of the team who wanted to hang out with him later and Steve escaped.

He couldn’t get Billy’s words out of his mind, why did he think that Steve was an Omega? He hadn’t popped a knot yet but he hadn’t exhibited any Omega traits either at most he was a Beta, which wasn’t ideal but he had no control over his status and even if he was an Omega why would Billy think that he’d look twice at him? The only impression that Billy had made on Steve was of an overly aggressive asshole who followed a crowd and he didn’t find any of those things attractive.

The next week didn’t go any better. Billy's stare weighed on him like a physical touch, his experiences at practice continued in the same way until he was covered in bruises and Billy’s scent had become so familiar that he could smell it even when he was home. Nancy didn’t seem to have any time for him and by the following week she had moved closer to Jonathan, he felt a heaviness in his chest but he tried to be happy for her but he couldn’t stop thinking about where he’d gone wrong. His popularity crown had become tarnished and girls who would have looked at him with interest had either paired up with someone else or were more interested in people who still retained some semblance of popularity.

He started to feel a little down, not too interested in eating, struggling to sleep and school was the furthest thing from his mind. Then to his surprise Ryan seemed to notice how disconnected he was and invited him to a party that weekend at his house, at first he thought he’d skip it but in the end, he was sitting in his house on a Saturday night and he was so bored that he considered going to bed early. Then he thought why not go to a party, if he hated it he could leave at any time so he had a shower and picked out an outfit that he felt made him look good and spent a little extra time on his hair.

When he arrived at Ryan’s house he felt nervous, this was the first time in a long time that he’d been anywhere in public completely on his own, no friends and no Nancy. He didn’t even know who was going to be here but it was pretty much a sure thing that the other members of the team would be there. He walked quickly into the house heading straight for the kitchen to stash his drink and then he took a deep breath and looked around. There were so many people there that he hoped he could disappear into the crowd at least for a while.

A few hours later he was starting to feel the effects of the alcohol that he was drinking and had found a group of girls who seemed happy to have him with them. They must have been from out of town because he didn’t recognise them from anywhere. It felt like he’d met up with a group of friends who just got him on a spiritual level, they seemed to enjoy the same songs and even though they barely spoke to each other they were happy to dance almost as though they had been practising these moves together all week. He was having so much fun that he almost didn’t see Ryan trying to get his attention but when he did he walked over to him with a smile.

“Hey man, thanks so much for inviting me.”

“No problem, I just wanted to let you know that there’s an Omega who’s been asking about you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, they’re been torturing me all night looking for an introduction.”

Steve tried to imagine an Omega who could be interested in him but his mind drew a blank.

“Who?”

“Well they’re not from Hawkins but I told them you might come and you should have seen their face when they saw you.”

Ryan smiled at him and Steve tried to think about how he would feel hooking up with a random Omega at a party while felt a little drunk. His mind supplied him with an image of Nancy, her soft voice as she expressed her exasperation at him and then a smile to show she wasn’t serious. That little painful flutter in his chest returned and he turned to Ryan with a soft smile.

“Thanks, man, really but I think I’m just gonna head home.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

Ryan clapped him on the shoulder and he went and collected his coat and snuck out the back door walking around the house towards his car, it was only a ten-minute drive back home he was sure he could do it if he drove slowly. He’d just reached his door when he felt someone press up against him, hot breath on the side of his neck making him shiver.

“Leaving so soon little Omega?”

“I’m not an Omega…”

Billy pressed against him a little more fully as his hand slid down and squeezed Steve’s hip.

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll have you writhing and wet…”

Steve sighed.

“Look I just want to go home alright, it’s been a long week.”

“Oh the girlfriend...sorry ex-girlfriend...she’s moved on isn’t it time you did too…”

Steve tried to break free but Billy was too strong, his relationship with Nancy was none of his business but Billy held him easily and started to coo softly in his ear.

“I can help you forget about her…”

Steve thought that Billy didn’t know what he was getting himself into, he was going to take one look at him and change his mind and even though he didn’t care what Billy thought about him he still didn’t think that he could take that kind of rejection right now.

“Trust me I’m more than you can handle right now so just let me go.”

“Oh that’s right, ‘King Steve,’ don’t worry about me I can handle plenty, the question is can you handle me?”

Steve rolled his eyes, Billy was all cocky bravado, he was putting on a front but he didn’t understand why he was so interested in Steve, was it to put him down a little more so no one would question Billy’s popularity? Was it because he thought Steve was an Omega? There were plenty of Omegas in Hawkins and with Billy’s new popularity he wouldn’t be short of offers, he just didn’t understand. A small perverse part of him wanted to see Billy’s eyes widen, his cocksure smile to falter as he realised what he was up against and maybe Steve would feel like he’d beaten him in something.

“Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is then.”

He heard Billy laugh softly behind him.

“That’s the spirit Princess, I’m gonna blow your mind.”

Billy squeezed his hip one last time then moved back so that Steve wasn’t pressed into the car anymore he motioned over to a blue car sitting a little further away from the others and Steve followed him over to it. Each step he took more doubt entered his mind what the fuck was he thinking?

When they reached the car Billy opened it and motioned for Steve to get in first, he took a deep breath and climbed in, his senses were suddenly overwhelmed with Billy’s scent and to his horror, he felt his dick start to swell in his jeans. Billy crawled in after him closing the door, it was kind of cramped and he thought that they really should have used Steve’s car for this.

Steve was tall with long legs and Billy was muscular and broad in this car they barely had room to move. He was just about to say this to Billy when he felt his hands undoing his jeans, he had a moment where he desperately wanted to laugh but he didn’t know why all he could think about was all the girlfriends that he’d had to sweet talk to even get them to consider his dick and Billy had him halfway out without so much as a word.

Billy roughly pulled down his jeans and underwear to about mid-thigh and Steve felt his face heat when he realised that he was half-hard, for the first time in his life he would have liked to have started soft so at least he didn’t look too eager. Billy ran his too hot hand over his cock a shark-like grin on his face.

“You are a big boy aren’t you Sweetheart…”

He started to stroke over him with a sure hand and Steve bit his lip to keep from moaning, Billy then brought his hand up to his face and while maintaining eye contact with Steve he licked over his palm before bringing his hand back and the added moisture made his hand move more smoothly and Steve moaned despite himself.

Billy pushed his way in between his legs forcing Steve to widen them further to accommodate him when he felt Billy’s hot wet tongue licking over the head of his dick in broad strokes he threw his head back and closed his eyes enjoying the sensation. He gasped when he felt Billy’s lips sucking around the top as his tongue continued to lick underneath, it felt so good but he knew that he was going to concentrate on the head like everyone always did, he was lucky if just beyond the head was sucked into someone’s mouth. It still felt good but he’d always wondered what it felt like to feel someone’s mouth engulfing his cock in the warm wetness of their mouth, the flutter of their throat as they took him deep but he knew that he would never get to experience this.

He jumped when he realised that he could feel a little flutter near the head of his dick and his eyes shot open when he looked down Billy’s mouth was stretched wide around his dick, he could feel his tongue dancing like a sinful serpent on the underside, he felt shock shoot through him when he realised that Billy was about halfway down his dick. He suddenly felt warm all over and then he made eye contact with him and the smug bastard winked at him and increased his suction making Steve cry out his hands shaking at his sides as he desperately wanted to touch him but was afraid of accidentally pushing him further down and hurting him.

Billy slid the hand that was holding the base of his cock down onto his balls, he massaged them in his hand for a few minutes making Steve’s head feel light as arousal surged through him, he hated to admit it but this was the best blow job he’d ever gotten, who would have thought that it would be with Billy Hargrove of all people.

Then Billy’s hand moved away from his balls further back and he was confused especially when he felt one of his fingers press up against his hole, he stiffened slightly and tried to pull away but Billy just increased his suction and he felt his legs turn to jelly as he moaned softly. The finger was persistent and to his shock, Billy was able to push it in with little resistance, it felt a little strange but not unpleasant so he thought Billy was just trying something out and if he kept sucking his dick like that it was fine by Steve. He got lost in the sensations that Billy was providing with his mouth until he felt him pushing in two fingers, this time he couldn’t fully ignore the stretch and he ended up squirming at the fullness wondering what the fuck Billy was up to, he opened his mouth to ask him but just as he did Billy brushed up against something inside him that made him cry out, he could feel his body fluttering around Billy’s fingers as the vibration from Billy’s groan ran over his cock.

“Oh fuck...B-Billy...what...Oh god…”

Billy ruthlessly pressed against that spot over and over until Steve’s mind went completely blank and he could feel his body tensing as he neared his orgasm, he tried to warn Billy but he couldn’t speak only moan as the pleasure rolled over him like a wave stealing all his energy as he came into Billy’s waiting mouth.

He floated in space for a few moments, his body completely turned to jelly and his mind in a pleasant haze when he was brought back to reality by Billy undulating his fingers inside him, it felt like too much now as though Billy’s fingers had increased in girth and it made his body twitch in overstimulation.

“What are you d-doing…”

“Just showing you how wet and open you are for me Omega.”

“What?”

“Can’t you feel how wet your little hole is? How greedy it is for more than my fingers?”

Steve was confused but as he concentrated on the feeling of Billy’s fingers he realised that he was wet and his body even though it was a little uncomfortable now was pulling his fingers in deeper like it wanted them there. He heard Billy laugh then he slowly pulled his fingers from his body, Steve looked down in time to see him suck the shiny digits into his cruel mouth while making eye contact with him. His eyes burned in that intense way that Steve had grown accustomed to then he slithered his way up his body.

“Don’t hurt yourself, Princess, you’re an Omega..”

Steve tried to think but as he opened his mouth to ask further questions Billy leaned forward and captured his mouth in a harsh kiss, his tongue licking obscenely into his mouth an intoxicating mix of savoury and sweet.

Steve couldn’t stop thinking about that night at Ryan’s, how hot and stuffy it had been in Billy’s car, Billy’s weight as he pressed him down, how good his mouth felt and most shocking of all the way his fingers had made him lose his mind. He secretly wanted more but a stubborn part of him didn’t want to give Billy the satisfaction of being right, he was an insufferable asshole now how much worse would he be if he figured out that he’d gotten Steve to crave it? He tried to think if there was anyone else he could go to, a more understanding Alpha who would be gentle and understand that this was all a shock.

Eddie flashed through his mind, he’d graduated from Hawkins a couple of years ago, he now worked for his dad but he always smiled at Steve when he saw him, asked him how he was and he’d been so understanding in the past. He pictured himself walking up to him, telling him that he was an Omega, he imagined that Eddie would give him that little lopsided smile he always had and would be cool about the whole thing.

Then Billy’s growling voice would invade his mind, his scent that seemed to follow Steve everywhere, that burning challenge in his eyes and the feeling of his fingers filling him up in a way that he couldn’t fully push from his mind. When he arrived for basketball practice at the end of the week Billy was all over him as usual, his body a solid wall behind him, his skin becoming mottled with bruises from Billy’s hip bones and jabbing fingers, his hot breath on his neck and sometimes even his tongue swiping over his skin. He felt so out of control like he wasn’t here this was all just a dream and at any moment Billy was going to whisper in his ear and the scene would change and they’d be back in his car, his fingers driving him wild while Billy smirked at him and called him Omega in that way that felt a little sharp, a little demeaning but it made his blood heat with want.

So he decided fuck it why pretend anymore and so when he next got the ball and Billy started to grind up against him, his sweat-slick skin rubbing against Steve’s damp shirt he pushed his ass back making sure to rub it over Billy’s dick. He heard his breath catch, then Billy dug his fingers into his hip pulling him back a little more securely onto his hardening cock.

“Is that it Princess, you want my cock ruining you for anyone else who might come along?”

“I was thinking more of a trial run before someone better shows up.”

Billy growled and Steve had to bite his lip to stop himself from whimpering.

“Trust me Sweetheart once I’ve knotted you, you’ll come begging me for more, for a sweet little Omega like you there’s nothing like getting a nice hard cock opening you up for the first time…”

Then Billy knocked him to the ground and stole the ball and Steve just stayed there letting the coolness from the floor seep into him and tried to calm his mind. The coach then called time and they hit the showers as usual Billy and Tommy came to shower in the corner with him.

Tommy was strangely subdued today, he kept glancing at Billy looking for a signal but none seemed to come so he showered quickly and left. As soon as it was only the two of them Steve became hyper-aware of Billy, his skin tingled as it waited for him to touch him, his breath got caught in his throat thinking about what Billy had said on the court.

He finally couldn’t take it anymore and glanced at Billy who smirked at him before walking over to him causing Steve to move back until his back hit the cold shower wall and Billy pinned him there. He licked his lips at him and Steve to his eternal shame could feel his dick getting hard, his mind supplying him with images of exactly how amazing that tongue could feel. Then Billy surprised him by leaning forward and capturing his mouth in a harsh kiss, he wanted to resist but he couldn’t and soon he was moaning into Billy’s mouth. Then he pulled back leaving Steve gasping as he moved down to his throat.

Billy licked over his wet skin and Steve couldn’t help a little whine escaping his lips, he’d never known his neck was so sensitive but he started to squirm when he felt Billy bite down on his quivering flesh with his sharp teeth making his knees buckle. Billy pushed himself more fully in between his legs and he gripped his shoulders trying to regain his balance. Then he felt Billy push a finger up against his hole and he felt lightheaded, he bit his lip and closed his eyes as he slowly opened his legs a little wider to give him better access. He felt Billy smile against his throat.

“That’s a good girl Princess, I know what you need.”

Steve let out a shaky breath as the finger was slowly pushed into him making him realise that he wet already just from them interacting on the court then Billy bit down on his skin again and he whimpered.

“You’re so sensitive Sweetheart, imagine how good my cock would feel pushing into you like this, so much bigger...satisfying...your body’s begging for more…”

Steve trembled as Billy moved back in front of him, the burning in his eyes was so intense that Steve couldn’t hold eye contact with him for long then he leaned forward and ran his tongue slowly over his lips, Steve opened his mouth on a gasping breath and Billy licked into his mouth and he sucked his tongue the rest of the way moaning as Billy replaced his finger with two. Billy bit down on his lip and that little bite of pain sent him over the edge as he felt his body flutter around Billy’s fingers causing him to groan into his mouth.

When Billy moved back to his neck to worry the mark he’d made some more with his teeth, Steve felt lightheaded, boneless against the wall as his body slowly recovered.

“Are you free later?”

Billy bit down a little harder.

“What have you got in mind Princess?”

“My...my p-parents are away for the weekend…”

“You want me to come over and deflower you in your bed like a proper Princess?”

“I’m not a virgin asshole…”

Billy growled into his throat.

“Been with another Alpha have you?”

Steve wanted to lie and say yes he had, he didn’t want Billy to have the satisfaction of thinking that this was a momentous occasion for Steve, that he cared about having an Alpha fuck him, he just wanted to experience it and Billy at this moment was his best bet. It was on the tip of his tongue but he thought better of it, what was the point of lying and Billy knew that he thought he’d been an Alpha until recently.

“No, but that doesn’t make me a virgin.”

“After you’ve been with me you’ll feel like one.”

Steve rolled his eyes, what a dick.

Steve sat fidgeting on the couch in his living room, Billy was due to arrive at any moment and for some reason he felt a little giddy, bubbling over with nervous energy and he hated that it was because Billy was coming over. He tried to rationalise that it wasn’t going to be a big deal, it was going to be different but that was ok, he’d just never expected to find himself in this position so of course, it was going to be a little nerve-wracking. He couldn’t help thinking that he’d made a poor decision and he should just back out now before it was too late because going by past experiences once Billy got his hands on him it was hard to think rationally.

He was pulled from his thoughts by a knock on the door, he made himself wait for a beat then he slowly got up to answer the door finding Billy on the other side a cocky smile on his face. He motioned for him to come in then wasn’t sure what he should do, with girls he’d invited over in the past he’d offer them a drink and try to make them comfortable but he doubted Billy needed any of those things. He wasn’t trying to get to know him any better, Billy was here for one thing and one thing only so he just turned and walked up the stairs. He got to his room then turned watching as Billy took everything in before he turned to him, his eyes intense.

Steve took a deep breath then pulled his top off followed by his sweats then lay on his bed and watched as Billy took him in, his eyes roaming all over his body before he started to slowly remove his clothes. Where Steve had been abrupt and efficient Billy seemed to be putting on a show, removing each piece of clothing in a little performance for Steve, a little sensual striptease.

He was confused as to why he would put in the effort but he couldn’t deny that it filled him with anticipation for what was to come next. He’d never really paid any attention to Billy’s body outside of noticing how big and muscular he was but now he saw the golden hue to his skin, how his body was a strange combination of hard and soft and his skin had a silken sheen to it like Billy used a body lotion, something with no scent as his own was so strong and intoxicating.

Once he was fully naked he prowled towards Steve pinning him to the bed with his much bigger body, the warmth of his skin seeping into Steve’s much cooler one as he leaned down to pull him into an indulgent kiss. Steve wrapped his arms around his shoulders trying to relax his mind as he got lost in the kiss. He could feel Billy’s fingers stroking softly over his skin and he allowed that to lull him into a calm sense of peace.

Billy kissed his way over to his throat, licking over the marks he’d left there earlier that day before introducing his teeth once more and Steve took a shuddering breath as Billy started to move his way down his body. Just as Steve started to calm down a little as he got lost in the soft sensation from Billy’s tongue running over his skin then he would introduce his teeth once more, leaving little indents in his skin that in a few hours would have a purple haze around them and Steve’s breath would get caught in his throat again as his excitement grew.

Billy slithered his way down his body until he reached his legs then he pulled them open and positioned himself in between them and Steve took a deep breath trying to prepare himself for what he knew was coming next. Billy shocked him by ignoring the hard cock right in front of him and instead sucking the sensitive skin of Steve’s inner thighs into his wicked mouth, Steve couldn’t breathe a few moments later when he started to use his teeth leaving deep indents all over his thighs.

Then he moved his way upward and he didn’t waste any time sucking Steve into his mouth in a way that made his thighs tremble.

“Oh fuck…”

Billy used his mouth to drive Steve to distraction and he felt himself losing control so quickly that he wondered if Billy was even going to get the chance to fuck him because he felt as though he was about two seconds away from coming down his throat. Then Billy pulled back slightly, licking over the head of his cock like it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. Then Steve felt his finger at his hole and he spread his legs a little wider in anticipation. The first finger felt good but not enough, he was over the shock of that initial push in and he just wanted more.

“Billy….Billy please…”

Billy glanced up at him then pulled his finger out and replaced it with two and Steve moaned low in his throat, he was starting to crave the stretch that came from Billy’s fingers, they felt so good inside filling him up. Then Billy sucked him back into his mouth as he pushed his fingers in deeper and Steve’s mind emptied all he felt was how good Billy was making him feel, his skin erupted in gooseflesh, tingles that enhanced his pleasure as his mind became hazy. Billy slowly pulled his fingers out and Steve couldn’t help his disappointed groan then Billy pulled back from his cock with a laugh.

“Don’t worry Princess you just need something a little extra to get you ready for my cock.”

Then he slowly pushed in three fingers and Steve felt like he was choking on his tongue, he felt so full but he still felt greedy for more as he whimpered out Billy’s name.

“B-Billy...Billy…”

He felt Billy move further down then he jumped when he felt his tongue pushing in between his fingers, his tongue was hot and could move more fluidly than his fingers could and soon Steve could feel the slick that was escaping from his hole running the back of his thighs as he struggled to stay in control.

“That’s it Princess, have to get you nice and wet for me…”

Then he pulled away and moved his way back up Steve’s body pulling him into a messy kiss with Steve’s sweet-tasting slick all over his tongue. Steve moaned into his mouth as he felt Billy squeeze his hips then used them to pull him more firmly under him. Then he felt him position his cock at his hole and he froze, he thought about all the times when he’d still thought he was an Alpha, all those disappointing times when all he’d done was cause pain and disappointment. Billy stopped when he realised that Steve wasn’t responding the same as before, he looked down into his eyes and Steve felt his face heat.

“Don’t worry Baby I know what I’m doing, I only want you to feel good…”

He leaned down and kissed Steve again until he calmed down again then he slowly started to push his way inside, it felt so strange at first, much more full, a little uncomfortable but he didn’t feel any pain and when Billy was fully inside he paused and kissed him some more making Steve relax even further. Then he started a steady rhythm, slowly the discomfort melted away leaving only pleasure, it felt so good that he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of this before, that he could have been experiencing a spine-tingling pleasure like this all along if he’d only listened to his body.

“Feel good Sweetheart?”

He could barely answer over the pleasure coursing through him but he managed.

“It’s not bad.”

“Not bad?”

“Yeah well...I was expecting something a bit more but this is fine…”

Billy growled and Steve fluttered around him before Billy picked up the pace, his teeth back in his neck and that all-consuming pleasure returned as Steve got lost in the sensations. Suddenly he became aware that Billy was getting bigger as he started to grind his cock into Steve and his entire body locked up, he couldn’t think, he could barely breathe, it felt like his tongue had become too big for his mouth as shudders ran up his spine.

“That’s it, Princess...you want my knot stuffing you full...I’m gonna ruin you, no one else will ever be able to make you come like this...only me...mine…”

When his knot finally popped inside Steve’s body locked up further until all he could feel was where they were connected, colours flashed behind his eyes as the tingly gooseflesh returned and he disappeared into the pleasure coursing through him.

When he returned to full consciousness Billy was licking over his throat and Steve took a shaky breath.

“Back with me Sweetheart?”

“I think so.”

“So was I right?”

Steve closed his eyes for a moment then looked up at Billy, that same cocky smile was still on his lips but there was a softness to his eyes, a little bit of vulnerability that was hard to see if you weren’t this close.

“I dunno, I think we have to try a few more times until I know for sure.”

He smiled up at him and felt a little elation when Billy smiled back.

#harringrove #alpha beta omega #alpha billy hargrove #omega Steve Harrington #top billy hargrove #bottom Steve harrington #my writing #minors dni #this is exhibit a on my I don't write about people's dicks #i can only apologise

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dreamologisth2o · 3 years

Text

My Thoughts on c!DreamXD

So Ruby’s recent analysis on the different interpretations of c!Dream has me thinking about my own interpretation of c!DreamXD because I feel like it’s fairly different from other people’s.

To start out with, most of what I’ve seen aren’t actually analysis posts. The one off character from 3-4 wacky streams doesn’t have much analysis going on for him, who would’ve guessed? But based on a lot of art and headcanon posts I’ve seen around the c!Dream apologists circle most people believe him to be either full on ancient eldritch god or someone who seeks acceptance through any means necessary and is similar to c!Slime, who’s easily manipulated. Everyone agrees he’s a c!George simp.

Outside the c!Dream apologist circles, of which I have not seen many of and mostly heard second hand, people believe he’s manipulated and cursed c!George into an everlasting contract of being his friend, and that the actions he takes during c!George’s dream are done out of malice and not ignorance.

From here on out I’m only ever referring to the characters and not the content creators unless specified.

First things first: DreamXD has agency. He has things he’s ok with and things he’s not ok with. He has boundaries and he sets those boundaries and when someone infringes upon them he’s not afraid of pushing back or punishing them for said infringement. Yes, George eventually convinced DreamXD to give him netherite armor in exchange for his friendship at the end of his stream. No, DreamXD did not immediately give into George’s demands. In fact he argues against it, multiple times. Constantly pointing out how George only wanted him around for “stuff” and refusing until it seemed to be the only thing he could do that would convince George to stay. That’s nothing like Slime, who pretty much does whatever anyone else asks him to do.

The way I’ve seen people treat Slime is very similar to the way they treat DreamXD, and that’s not surprising, because both are characters who don’t know much about how humans act and how they work nor how to fit into “human society”. BUT the big difference between the two is that DreamXD has agency while Slime does not. I don’t know if it’s because of their apparent age or because of their origins, but just because DreamXD doesn’t know how “normal human society” works doesn’t mean he has the mentality of a toddler or a new born baby. He’s ignorant, not naïve. He knows when he’s being used and he knows it’s not something he likes.

I also do not believe he is controlled by the book. Quite frankly that entire scene to me felt more like DreamXD sensed a disturbance and much like when Techno and Phil started messing with the portal room, had simply gone and investigated. He was not required to grant them a wish, it was Techno who asked if he could, which he then offered them one. When they try to summon him again, he doesn’t show up, further proof that the book, while having caught his interest, doesn’t actually have any real hold/power over him. Also, he sounded kinda annoyed in the chat log, speaking in short sentences and single word answers.

Another example of DreamXD refusing to be used for items is when Foolish foolishly (haha) asks him for another shulker box. To which he retaliates by summoning lighting on him, multiple times, until Foolish takes back his request.

That said, DeramXD is perfectly fine with giving things away if it’s of his own volition and not because someone demands it of him. When Techno asks if he grants wishes, DreamXD offers them 1 when he could’ve just said no. When Foolish and Bad are having another territory dispute, DreamXD comes by and places heads of the various server members for them. He’s also given George diamonds of his own volition before as well. He’s not opposed to doing things for someone or giving them stuff, it’s only when people try to use him for things (cough cough George) does he get defensive and upset.

Second: DreamXD is not inherently malicious. When he does something bad, he doesn’t do it to be mean or to hurt them. He does it because he thinks it’d be funny, get a laugh out of George, or because he doesn’t recognize that sending someone to hell and back isn’t nice. (it was pretty funny though XD)

What he considers “good” or “bad” or acceptable is very different from “normal” and so most of his actions are born from ignorance of what “normal” is, ignorance he tries to correct by learning from George, the one person he’s been seen talking to outside chat. Which, George isn’t a good teacher, at all, but I’m not here to talk about that.

And more recently, when we see him cause mild chaos with Bad and Foolish, he ultimately leaves things back to the way he found them in. Returning L’Sandburg back to where it was, teleporting Foolish out of the void, showering both Bad and Foolish in EXP bottles to heal their armor and giving them some extra food to help them recover health after smiting them a few dozen times. (he also placed water on the TNT Skeppy lights in Foolish’s summer home at the same time as Bad, to prevent the explosion from blowing the place up.)

Third: There is a non-zero chance that DeramXD is whatever it is the dreamon hunters split from Dream during that first dreamon hunter stream, and not an ancient all powerful god of the server. (Though the members of the server certainly believe him to be which is what I personally believe led to DreamXD calling himself “god”. Because everyone else calls him that) If he’s a god, which considering his abilities he can certainly be counted as one, then he isn’t old, and is in fact quite new.

DreamXD explicitly states "I’m not Dream! ...I... am not Dream, sort of. I’m a part of him.” (Which means Dream came first!) He has also mentioned having been hunted at one point in the past (either as Dream during manhunts or because of the dreamon hunters, we don’t know), and has spoken in Dream’s voice once before switching back and saying “mm, he’s gone.”

Lastly: and, again this is just my personal thoughts on DreamXD and something I find interesting/funny about the fandom’s response but. George and Techno both say DreamXD looks like Dream. Foolish has mistaken Dream’s head for DreamXD before. By all means and canon evidence, DreamXD should look basically identical to Dream. Does this stop the fandom from going wild with his design? Nope. In fact, it’s so wild I have a hard time believing that this 23ft tall eldritch abomination with too many eyes, multiple floating hands, rings of halos around his (usually just an orb) head, twenty pairs of wings and long flowing robes looks anything like this scruffy, homeless, teletubby in a mask. Much less close enough that George keeps accidentally or on purpose mistaking him for Dream.

Like, all these designs are amazing and super duper cool looking and extraordinarily creative but it’s not accurate to canon at all and the spiderman meme makes much less sense when neither of the “spidermen” looks anything like the other. (Unless of course, everyone on the dsmp is mask blind and think anyone with a white mask looks like Dream because they can’t see past that and--)

ANYWAYS, this concludes some of my thoughts on DreamXD. I certainly have more but this has gotten long and kinda rambly. If you’ve gotten this far, then thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!

#c!DreamXD #long post #my rambles #my thoughts #I have #so many thoughts on c!DreamXD and c!George's relationship #it's so messed up man #and not just the part where c!George is locked into an everlasting contract with c!DreamXD #for some netherite armor and tools #because c!George is pretty messed up too #and the way he so casually manipulates/tries to convince c!DreamXD into giving him things #even though c!DreamXD has already said/proven multiple times that he doesn't like that #kinda reminds me of beeduo's dynamic #where it looks sweet on the outside #but there are definitely unhealthy undertones when you examine certain aspects of their relationship more closely

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lesbianshanventure · 2 years

Text

Wild mistborn/cosmere rambles ahead. Long post. Big spoilers for all cosmere. Read at your own risk.

[Image transcript:

Kingsdaughter613 Primary question: Peter recently said something about atium in Era 1 actually being an atium-electrum alloy, which is called nalatium. Is this accurate?

Brandon Sanderson This is accurate, yes. You could, by the way, just continue to call it atium. That's what they think atium is in-world. It's very slightly tainted.

Kingsdaughter613 Secondary questions: If the above is yes, did Kelsier get malatium by separating the atium and gold from the silver in nalatium? If so, do atium and gold have similar melting points?

Brandon Sanderson That's more of a RAFO in that I'm not sure I want to canonize any of that right now.

Footnote: Peter's comment did not give the alloy a name, Adam misread the sentence where the questioner provided their own name for it. YouTube Spoiler Stream 3 (Dec. 16, 2021)

End transcript.]

And here is Peter’s comment, mentioned in the footnote.

[Image transcription:

Xais56 Brandon has said that everyone ought to be able to burn Atium, like they can all burn Lerasium, and the fact that they can't was an oversight on his part that he would've done different in hindsight. Maybe now he's had an in-universe reason to re-write the laws of allomancy it's back to his intended concept; Mistborn burn all 16 base metals, mistings burn one base metal, non-allomancers can only burn godmetal.

Peter Ahlstrom My explanation for this is that Preservation somehow caused all naturally occurring atium to form as an alloy of atium and electrum. The atium Mistings were actually electrum Mistings.

Xais56 It's a very tidy solution, but it creates the maddening question of what does pure atium do?

Peter Ahlstrom That answer has already been revealed canonically. RAFO.

Footnote: Brandon later confirmed that this is indeed the case. General Reddit 2021 (Nov. 2, 2021)

End transcription]

Ramblings Begin

Fascinating new WOB. So “Atium”, as we’ve seen it, is actually an atium/electrum alloy??? I didn’t expect that honestly, which I really could have cause Atium has honestly always been a bit weird. It seemed way too weak, given that it is a god metal, and the fact that not everyone could burn it did seem rather odd, since we know anyone and everyone can burn lerasium. And the hemalurgy table does say that Atium can steal any power but that it “must be refined”, so this does all check out. This is probably still a retcon and not the original plan, but if so it’s a retcon that seems to have been in the works for a while.

(Side note: If you don’t need to be an allomancer to burn atium or lerasium, is there any reason you need to be for any other godmetal? Can anyone anywhere in the cosmere swallow some godmetal and burn it as long as they have Intent? That is how it works with Hemalurgy. Hmmm. I’d love to see someone in stormlight try this now that we’ve had Raysium introduced. Plus, there is that chunk of an honorblade sitting around uselessly in some field lol, as someone mentioned in another question in that spoilerstream.)

So that of course begs the question of what does pure Atium do? Peter says that this has been not just revealed, but canonized (ie, in one of the books) so based on that I’m guessing this is about Elend’s vision at the end of Hero of Ages. Cause that did seem like more than just a more powerful version of normal Atium.

So what about all the other Atium alloys? What do they do?? And only a person who can burn Metal A can burn a godmetal alloy of Metal A? Is that true for all godmetals? I think it’s been implied that a Lerasium/metal alloy makes you a misting of that metal so that’s... quite useless lol. Even more useless than it already was, since you had lerasium on hand and are using it to turn yourself into a misting instead of a mistborn.

And all “Atium mistborn” are actually electrum mistborn? Do people in world know this? Probably not right? Cause there’s not any atium left to test out anything on.

Okay, and what about Feruchemy? Based on what Sazed said, it seems like it was relatively common knowledge among the Keepers that Atium is rather useless for feruchemy, it just stores age, but they would have been experimenting with the Electrum!Atium presumably so we actually have no idea what its feruchemical properties are. I’d assume that if an Electrum ferring god their hands on Electrum!Atium, they could store in it but no other ferrings could, just like with allomancy. So storing age is a function of Electrum!Atium not pure atium. (And maybe that’s why preservation did this whole thing. So that the lord ruler could make himself immortal. That would make a lot of sense.) So what does pure atium do feruchemically? I have no idea!!! We don’t know that with lerasium either I don’t think. Or harmonium. God I want to know so much more about godmetals.

But we *do* know what pure atium does in hemalurgy, if my interpretation is correct. Cause as I mentioned earlier, the hemalurgy table says that Atium “requires refinement” to be able to steal any power, so I assume they’re actually working with pure atium. But *why* did the inquisitors think to refine it for hemalurgy, but not for allomancy or feruchemy? or did they, and it’s just us that don’t know what it does in those systems and they do. The question still stands though, why did they think to refine it? Did they not get any effect from Electrum!Atium? Why not? That’s really odd. Or if they did, how did they know that Atium is impure? Did the lord ruler know from when he ascended? I mean I guess that would make sense, and it also makes sense that he wouldn’t share that knowledge with the Nobles cause he did hoard all kinds of information and he benefits from keeping things the way they are. We still don’t know what Electrum!Atium does hemalurgically though, which is interesting.

And now onto the elephant in the room: Marsh. He’s still kicking around with a bag full of Electrum!Atium, and the ability to both store in it and to burn it. Do we know anything about the spikes for it? Assuming it’s actually just a spike for electrum power, the one for Allomantic!Electrum should be Cadmium and the one for Feruchemical!Electrum should be gold. They didn’t have Cadmium back then though, so probably it’s an Atium (pure atium) spike, since that can steal any power. His feruchemical one could be too. Has he done any work with pure atium? He seems to be working under Sazed’s command at this point, so probably if he *has* done anything with it it would be cause Sazed wanted him to. (And sazed probably already knows what it does)

In conclusion: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

So there are two things I want to ask brandon that I think have a chance of being answered:

can any (non-alloy) godmetal be burned by anyone who has Intent?

What does Electrum!Atium do hemalurgically, and why isn’t that on the hemalurgy table?

Feel free to add on with your own rampant speculation, I’d love to hear it!!!!

#original post #cosmere #mistborn #atium #wob

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eivor-basim · 3 years

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Hi, I hope this isn't a bother, I was curious if you had any headcannons to the ages of the main AC Valhalla characters (Eivor, Sigurd, Randvi, Hytham, and Basim)? I'm bad at judging ages lol, even worse with animated faces lol.

No bother at all, always love getting asks! And this one sent me down some interesting historical rabbit holes, so thank you.

First, it's important to note that the game spans the years 872-878 (the year Eivor escapes Kjotve to the historical date King Aelfred fled to Athelney).

Eivor: canonically born in 847, making her 25 at the start of the game and 31 by the end. This matches up pretty well with my headcanon age for her. I might've guessed a couple years younger, as her face has a youthful fullness to it, but it's about right

Sigurd: canonically born in 842, making him 30 at the start of the game and 36 by the end. I also agree with this one, as he appears a few years older than Eivor and seems more established (a marriage, a position leading long voyages, etc.) but still has a playful sibling relationship with her-- meaning he's not so much older that he just sees her as a kid

Randvi: no canon age. This is an interesting case because we don't get a lot of clues or background. All we know is that at the start of the game she's been married to Sigurd for three years. From a historical perspective, that would probably place her at max 18, which is plainly not accurate. Just based on appearance, she seems older than Eivor and maybe even a couple years older than Sigurd. This might just be due to a more angular bone structure, however. My headcanon would be 32 at the beginning, 38 by the end

Hytham: no canon age. I reallyyy had to reach on this one, as we know very little about him. By appearances, I would say he's probably a couple years younger than Eivor (not many, though, he does have facial hair). Towards the end of the game, Hytham receives a letter basically promising a promotion to master assassin the following year. Now, in the first assassin's creed game the protagonist Altair becomes a master assassin at 24 in the 1100s and this is considered "unheard of." So Hytham must be older than that by the end of the game, at least by a couple of years. So my headcanon for him is 22 at the start of the game, 28 by the end.

Basim: no canon age. This was a fun puzzle! We don't know much about Basim. He's middle-aged by appearances, but that can be a big range. The biggest clue we get is one of Basim's conversations with Eivor reflecting on his childhood. He mentions 2 events from his youth: his father being exiled after completing the Great Mosque of Samarra and meeting al-Khwarizmi in the Baghdad House of Wisdom. The mosque was completed in 851 and the astronomer died in 850. Since Basim recalls these moments very clearly and refers to himself as a boy at that time, I think it's most likely he was a teenager, perhaps 16 or 17. That would place him at 39 at the beginning of the game and 45 by the end.

That was probably way more in depth than what you wanted, but I found it super interesting to research! Hope that helps

#ask #ac valhalla #assassin's creed #basim ibn ishaq #eivor #hytham #randvi #sigurd styrbjornsson #my thoughts #oc

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gins-potter · 3 years

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So there’s this rumoured/joke/troll?? cast list going around (@belikov-barnes and @lildhampir have made posts about it here and here) and look, it seems to be based of the unsourced claims of one reddit user and the detective work by another that tbh is kind of a stretch. So, you know, it’s almost definitely gonna turn out to be totally fake/inaccurate.

That being said, I’m bored and in lockdown so here’s my opinion on the choices.

Disclaimer that I haven’t seen any of these actors in anything before, and information on them online is pretty minimal so this is based almost completely on gut reactions and how they look. Under the cut for pics and opinions.

First up is Sisi Stringer (left) and Daniela Nieves (right) theorised to be Rose and Lissa.

So, it seems like Sisi Stringer is more likely to be Rose (although some think it’s the other way around). Aesthetically, I would agree that Sisi looks closer to Rose, she’s got the dark hair and eyes, she seems to have Rose’s figure, and a couple different sources have her between 5′1 and 5′5 which is pretty spot on for Rose. I can’t find a lot about her background/family online so I’m not sure on her exact ethnicity but she looks like she could be mixed-race like Rose which is something I would also love to see (I loved Zoey as Rose but them not casting a person of colour in that role was not it). Sisi isn’t really how I picture Rose at all but she does look to me like she could bring Rose’s humour and sarcasm so I can also see why they might cast her.

Daniele could be Rose but I think it’s more likely that she’s Lissa. Reportedly they are looking for a black woman to play Tatiana which is why I guess some think Sisi could be Lissa, but Tatiana and Lissa aren’t closely related (in the books anyway) so I’m not sure how that checks out. Again, aesthetically Daniela seems more like Lissa to me, although I do wonder if they’ll try to dye her hair blonde (I think like a light caramel-y colour could work) or if they really aren’t worried about sticking to Richelle’s descriptions. Daniela, I think, could really bring Lissa’s sweetness to the role but also be able to stand up where Lissa is fierce and uses her powers.

So then we have Keiron Moore (left) and Patrick Jhanur (right) both theorised to be Dimitri.

I sort of don’t know what to think of these two because neither of them are remotely close to how I would picture Dimitri. I go back and forth on Keiron Moore just because the short hair kind of throws me off, but also he also seems a little too stand-off-ish for Dimitri or something. That being said there are some shirtless pics of him on his instagram and they’re not bad which could definitely sway me in his favour 👀 I can’t find much about him online, because most of my search results link back to another actor of the same name from like the 50′s. Patrick Jhanur is also really not ideal for Dimitri in my opinion. He does have the right hair going on, but he’s a bit too innocent-looking and baby-faced to pull off Dimitri in my opinion. I can’t find this confirmed anywhere but I have seen it said that he should be around 25 by now so he would probably be the right age to play Dimitri if they leave the ages accurate to the book but I’m still not convinced aesthetically that he’s right.

Now these two are actually the two casting choices that I really like, Andre Dae Kim (left) and Mia McKenna-Bruce (right) as Christian and Mia respectively.

If this rumour cast list gets anything right and it’s that the tv show casting doesn’t care much about the canon descriptions, and decide to cast people of colour in some of the main roles, I could definitely be here for a non-white Christian. I think it could add extra dimension to his feelings of alienation/otherness, and tbh I would just love to have a main cast that isn’t 90% white. And I think someone like Andre Dae Kim could definitely pull off Christian’s aloofness of the first book, but then his sarcasm and growing confidence across the later books.

I also like McKenna-Bruce as Mia because aesthetically she’s similar enough to how Mia was originally described in the books, but even more so, like Andre Dae Kim as Christian I think she could off the different facets of Mia’s character, from the bratty/bully type of the first book, into the hard-working kickass character she ends up as.

And then we have Keiron Moor (again) (left) and Andrew Liner (right) as Mason or Eddie.

It’s speculated that Keiron could be Eddie, and that Andrew could be either Mason or Eddie. I’m again not convinced on Keiron for Eddie, maybe Eddie after the events of Frostbite, but he seems a little too serious for Eddie in the first book. Andrew I’m a little more on board with (for either Mason or Eddie tbh) but really not how I pictured either of them. Like I said with Andre Dae Kim, if there’s any sort of truth to this cast list and Andrew Liner does end up as either Mason, Eddie, or someone else entirely, I think it’s going to be a pretty clear indication that the show isn’t that fussed with accuracy, at least when it comes to character description/aesthetics.

So there we go, that’s sort of the main cast as outlined by this rumoured/joke/troll list. Like I and others have said, there’s really no credibility to these rumours at all. The person who posted them on reddit insists that they’re true but refuses to identify their source so that’s not exactly trustworthy, and a lot of them have been put together solely based on who’s following who on instagram (so again not exactly trustworthy).

But it was fun to kind of go through them and think about why they might or might not work as actual castings. Will love to be doing this again soon when we have an actual confirmed cast. What does everyone else think? Are there any choices here that you would love to be true? Or the opposite - any you’re hoping aren’t real?

#va #vampire academy #va tv show #rose hathaway #lissa dragomir #dimitri belikov #mia rinaldi #christian ozera #mason ashford #eddie castile

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yostresswritinggirl · 3 years

Note

Ahhhhh I see I didn’t consider Germany’s drinking age and you might be right, it checks out pretty ok with the webtoon; Amber states in one of the panels that she’s too young to drink (I think she mentioned needing one more year but I might be wrong) the webtoon is set 4 years prior to the in-game events so Amber would be around 19-20 and since she’s an adult who can drink in-game it checks out. We could probably go a bit further and see that Amber is about 12 when Dilucs father dies 3 years prior to webtoon events because Collei wears the same outfit she did in flashback (assuming Amber gave her her old clothes) and Collei is a child. Ugh I pulled up the manga and now I’ve found a problem,,, on the day Dilucs dad dies Diluc was celebrating his coming of age but it doesn’t specify what age that is. I had originally assumed he was 18 because I was going off of US standards of adulthood- another character says “you’re an adult now” to diluc. However, this could also be 16 if being able to drink alcohol makes you an adult. This becomes extra confusing when you consider Dilucs line of “I’ll pass this time” when the same character from before says “come on, have a drink” because it could have like 2 different meanings. (Things to consider: he was part of the knights and still on duty during this scene) 1. He just turned 16 and declines the offer saying “I’ll pass this time” because the next time they offer he will be legal and probably off duty 2. He is 18 and him saying “I’ll pass this time” is supposed to imply that there have been times before this that he drank and is now declining because he’s on duty. If we assume he’s 18 the day his father dies then 3 years later, at the start of the webtoon events, he would be 21 (which checks out with in-game age of being in his 20’s). On the other hand, if we assume he’s 16 then that would put him at 19 during the webtoon and to me that seems a bit too young for how he is regarded. We can’t really compare Amber and Dilucs age since we have an EXTREMELY rough estimate of Dilucs age but by analyzing how kaeya treats Amber during the webtoon events and even a bit in-game we can see a sort of ‘annoying older brother dynamic’; in the webtoon Amber is a bit more nervous when talking to kaeya than she is in-game (she becomes more bold when talking to him) I think this points to kaeya already being in his 20’s and because Amber would also be in her 20’s in-game she wouldn’t be as hesitant to show her annoyance with him since they are equals. If this is the case then Dilucs age checks out at 18 when his father died and all is well, but we can never be sure due to the many interpretations of the characters dialogue.

Ok that took longer than expected but I hope it makes sense,,, ugh I wish I could post a diagram or timeline to map out the events and the possibilities of what could have happened. Some of these numbers were rough estimates based on head cannon ages I have for diluc and kaeya (around 23 and 24).

If I were to guess their ages strictly going off of my personal headcanons without looking at webtoon ages I’ve always seen Amber as junior/sophomore college age, the traveler (in official art, which I think makes predictions more accurate considering there are only like 4 character models in game) as freshman/sophomore college age, and diluc as sort of a just graduated college/has been out of college for 1-2 years. Alright that’s it for my hyper focus on genshin lore that I’ve wanted to talk about for a very long time.

-🦋 anon

Mmmmmmmmmmm

Okay this is a lot to pick through *rubs temples* I guess going by Germany standards thus change things up so let me go through this slowly.

So adult age for Germany is 18, 14 is minor, and in between is adolescent. You can do the following during 16: get married (wack), and consume alcoholic beverages.

In canon, the timeline for the Amber/Collei chapter is set one year (or half a year) prior the game's current timeline, you can check this in game by reading the board by Good Hunter's where they mention Collei. If we go by that standard of age in Germany, Diluc may really be 18 in the celebration if he's considered an 'adult'. I don't remember which panel Amber declines because she's still underaged but she's still considered underage in game during Jean's story quest party.

I also wish to point out for reasons of age discussion that Kaeya is younger than Diluc.

Otherwise, specific age is left vague by Mihoyo and can only be interpreted in terms of underage or not.

That's all my brain juice for this discussion, my brain is dead now.

(My age hcs for em are: Amber 16-17, Traveler at 15, Diluc at 22, Kaeya at 20)

#anon 🦋#Amber #Diluc #Kaeya #exile.goblet #genshin impact #theories #wow Diluc you tried to kill your younger brother #thats fucked up

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masterhandss · 4 years

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Hamefura Ep. 11 - The Geordo Kiss Scene

I’m surprised. The anime production team really does butcher Geordo’s character, to the point where scenes from the original materials are unloyal or the scenes that they do add don’t fit with his character. Shockingly this episode is one of the few moments where they get it right. Ironically, I was waiting for this episode in hopes that they wouldn't change anything in this scene, but apparently not changing anything in of itself is the new problem.

For once, the scene that people don’t like is from the canon material instead of being an anime original. huh, would you look at that.

I don’t know if this scene was included in the original web novel, and I don’t exactly know how to check, but to those who are asking on their tags and posts, yes this scene is in the light novel (Volume 2 Side Story p. 273, according to my copy). It’s that scene that everyone keeps asking me context about.

There’s so much I want to say, but I know there’s nothing that I can really do to excuse this scene. Realistically, I can see why people would hate this scene because of the lack and consent and the image that Geordo might be taking advantage of the situation. Maybe anime and fiction has altered my perception of what’s okay and not okay in the real world, but I understand that while a kiss without consent might be romantic in anime, in the real world it’s creepy and can be considered as sexual assault.

I’m mostly writing this to share with everyone why I think this scene is okay, as a light novel reader who was waiting (but didn’t expect) for this scene to get animated.

I know there’s nothing I can really say to defend this scene to everyone, but you know, have some context anyway.

It’s important to note that while the anime seems to have left it out, it says in the light novels that if Katarina condition is bad because if she remained asleep and didn’t intake any food or water for days, that’s when her body will become weak and slowly die. It’s sort of implied in the anime, but without it being stated verbally, you might not know that this isn’t just a matter of her not waking up anymore.

My mom is a doctor, and she said that a person would like at least 9 days without food or water. The information changed based on where you look, so of course my mom might not completely accurate, but here’s what it says when I look it up on google.

You can go without food for a long time, but water is the problem. Again, researchers vary depending on where you look, but the general rule of thumb is that a person can last for 3 days without water, depending on their age and nutritional necessity.

Alan (i think?? don’t correct me lol) noted that Katarina has been for 2 days.

I don’t know about you guys, but I eat a lot. I’m so used to eating a lot that if I skip two meals, my hunger is so bad that it gets in the way of me doing normal things. That could just be me of course, some people can go a day without eating and getting hungry after all. Without the medical equipment today to take care if me if I ever got into a state of comma, I would probably die within 3 days.

But we’re talking about Katarina here. She, who is always hungry and is always looking for something to snack on. I get that this is an anime/fictional series so they can play out the hunger bit to an unrealistic degree, but if we’re going to put the Geordo Kiss Scene to real world standards, then I think it’s only fair that we do that to Katarina’s metabolism as well, to some extent. Apparently an unconscious person’s energy depletion is very very slow so there’s no danger of her getting as hungry as she does when she’s awake, but you know that’s still something worth nothing

Anne was trying to feed her some water in hopes that her situation might change, but also because she’s aware that the lack of water intake might kill her before the lack of food intake, which is obviously why she is prioritizing water.

I don’t know if anyone else got the same idea, but I got the implication that she had been trying for a while, but the water keeps slipping out of her mouth, like it was shown in the anime. It’s not like they have any dextrose in the world of hamefura, so there’s not a lot of ways that Anne can feed her water.

And then we arrive at the kiss scene.

Geordo, who realized thanks to Anne that her lack of food and water might do her in, take the water and uses his own mouth to feed Katarina with water. It’s important to note that unlike Anne’s attempts, Geordo’s worked, and (you guys might find this even more creepy but) he did it several times in order to provide her with the water that she lost in those two days.

Again, I can see why people might think that he took advantage of the situation, but I just didn’t get that impression. I saw it as reverse CPR in a way, and someone on the hamefura reddit discord said it was more like a mother bird feeding it’s chicks with its own mouth.

They don’t know when Katarina will wake up, and again dextrose probably doesn’t exist in hamefura so they have no means to feed her. It felt like a desperate attempt to feed her rather than anything malicious. I mean this isn’t about kissing her because he loves her, it’s a matter of kissing her in order to have her drink water.

I guess it’s kind of hard to put myself in the headspace of those who hated this scene, because I thought it was fine, but I always thought that the reasoning (feeding her water so she wont get dehydrated) overpowered the subtle creepiness of the scene (kissing her without consent). That might just be me.

He didn’t do it with any malicious intent in mind, and did it because he was too scared to lose her.

Of course, people who did read that scene in the LN might bring up the fact that after the scene (or flashback, as it was in the LN), Geordo does reminisce about the experience and hoped to have kissed her more, or what i’ll call as the “Post- Comatose Scene” and yeah okay that did feel kinda creepy, but he thought of that while being in the presence of the entire harem, watching them as they try to take away Katarina’s attention.

He thought of it like that because the post-scene was about him monologue-ing about Katarina’s relationships with everyone and how she’s being taken away father from him by his friends. I think i’d like to excuse that post-scene because at that time, his irritation for the harem and desire to become closer to winning Katarina over was taking over his mind. He thought of it with the desire to bring himself a few steps ahead of the others.

It’s a bit shitty that he even thought of using the event as a way to bring himself higher than the others, but at the post-scene it’s been a long time since the episode’s events happened so to some extent you can say that his anger and desperation clouded his judgement.

He never really brags about this event to anyone, and never advertised it as his or Katarina’s first kiss. He never really thought of it as one until weeks after the situation with Sirius ended. Their real first kiss is the one that happens later into the series.

Anyways, I know lots of people would still find problems with the scene regardless, but I just want people o know that this scene is in fact in the light novels and is canon. If you didn’t like this, well you guys might not like the other kiss scenes that are coming, if there will ever be an adaption of Volume 3

(might edit this if I remember anything I can add)

#my next life as a villainess #hamefura #hamehura #mh talks #My Next Life as a Villainess! All Routes Lead to Doom!#destruction flag otome #Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta #bakarina #katarina claes #catarina claes #geordo stuart #gerald stuart #jeord stuart

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carewyncromwell · 3 years

Photo

Cinderelly, Cinderelly, night and day, it’s Cinderelly~... ^.^ Okay..before I jump into the next part of the Cinderella AU, here’s your usual appetizer of random historical/etc. notes!

Although carriages were developed centuries earlier, actual coaches like the kind we think of from Cinderella stories were first developed in the late 16th century in Hungary, specifically a little town called Kocs. (The word “coach” and its alternatives in other languages, such as the German Kutsche and the Spanish and Portuguese coche, are thought to have been derived from the Hungarian kocsi, meaning “of Kocs.”) They then really caught on in the rest of Europe after Queen Elizabeth I of England started using them in the 1580s. The terms “coach” and “carriage” are often used interchangeably, but if one wanted to pin-point the advancements coaches specifically made in contrast to carriages of the past, there are a few differences one can pick out in how they’re built. Coaches generally are four-wheeled enclosed vehicles with doors and/or windows (glass was added in later centuries), and often include a “boot” seat on the outside for a footman and/or luggage to sit on. Coaches also generally have a reputation for providing a smoother ride than previous modes of transport because they’re suspended between the wheels rather than directly over or beside them. After the invention of the coach, one can find carriages (royal ones, in particular) adopting some of these same attributes.

Sadly wheelchairs really weren’t a thing in the 16th century. The first self-propelled wheeled chairs were developed in the mid-17th century and refined in the 18th, with sedan chairs or litters (A.K.A. chairs you carried) generally being used by the nobility prior to that. But there’s no way in Hell I’m not going to give McNully the independence he deserves, so I used a completely anachronistic design inspired by this antique wheelchair I found online, made circa around the 1840′s. Hey, this is a fantasy world anyway, so bleh. :P The flower detailing on the wheel is supposed to evoke an emblem I see being on Florence’s green and gold coat of arms (get it? “Florence?” “Flora?”). You might also notice that McNully has little Snitch-like “wing” frills on each of his buttons! XD

Another fun thing I learned while doing research -- although cloaks were often worn for warmth during the medieval period and beyond, in England during the Elizabethan era, their use was actually actively discouraged and even prohibited, as they were associated with criminals and rebels! Therefore it was common for a lot of English noblemen and women to wear thicker clothing made of wool and accessories like muffs, gloves, and even jackets for warmth instead. I tried very, very hard to find historically accurate examples of period-worthy jackets and capes for women around the time of the Renaissance, and was very frustrated to find a lot of fantasy-esque costume pieces or historical clothing from later eras that were simply mislabeled -- but I did find one lovely recreation of a 16th century wool jacket, so that’s what I used as reference for Carewyn’s jacket in this sketch, though I personally imagine it as a dark red, so as to better blend with her burnt orange and beige servant’s uniform. Bill’s uniform is based off a real castle guard uniform from early 16th century France, though with a much simpler color palette (I see Royaume’s colors being blue and red). Like with McNully’s chair, there’s a crown on the chest of Bill’s uniform, which I see being on Royaume’s coat of arms (“royaume” is literally French for “kingdom”).

In her canon, Carewyn was born when Jacob was nine years old. Although in most of Carewyn and Jacob’s canon post-Portrait-Vault, they end up being only two years apart in age, that’s only because Jacob stopped aging while trapped in a Portrait for seven years. From Carewyn’s fifth year on, Jacob and Carewyn in canon therefore act much more like contemporaries, even though Jacob actually kind of ended up partially raising Carewyn alongside their mother Lane.

Previous part is here – whole tag is here – Katriona “KC” Cassiopeia belongs to @kc-needs-coffee and I hope you all enjoy! xoxo

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Every day over the next week, Carewyn met Orion at the gate of the palace of Royaume, and the two would spend an hour or so together. Orion would ask her about life at the palace, Carewyn would playfully respond, and sooner or later, they’d end up getting diverted and talking about something else completely, whether the upcoming Winter Festival, the language of flowers, art, poetry, the meaning of life, music, fencing, or (after seeing a rather beautiful eagle flying overhead) what it might be like to fly. Carewyn honestly wasn’t entirely sure what Orion got out of their meetings besides entertainment, and naturally she couldn’t afford to indulge in such entertainment too long, when she had so much work to do around the castle and she still had to find out where Jacob was positioned. But she had to admit, with the King and Queen having invited Iris over to stay in one of the guest suites at the palace for the remainder of the month, Carewyn didn’t mind having an excuse to stay far away from her cousin. Lately Carewyn had actively planned her days so that she could clean the guest suites at teatime, when Iris would be in one of the foyers with the King, Queen, and Prince on the opposite side of the palace. She did not want a repeat of the other day, after all...particularly since she’d also need time to change out of the nicer, collared dresses she’d wear when spending time with Orion.

Orion, meanwhile, was of course getting a bit more than entertainment out of his and Carewyn’s meetings. Through speaking with Carewyn, he’d sussed out some very helpful information about Royaumanian culture, the dynamics within Royaume’s royal family, and both their and their country’s financial state. One day he told his closest confidantes at court, Skye and McNully, some of what he’d learned...but Skye didn’t react quite as favorably as Orion had expected.

“...I gave Lady Cromwell a copy of the sheet music for ‘No One is Alone’ last week -- you remember the song, of course? And from what I understand, Prince Henri and the castle staff have quite taken to it. Not that I’m surprised -- Carewyn has a very soothing voice. I’m sure she performed it very well. But the Prince listening to the words at all is a good sign -- I even asked Carewyn if the Prince enjoyed them, and she said she believed so. She also found their message meaningful...one of Florence’s best-loved anti-War songs, and one about looking through another’s eyes and forgiving past grievances, no less! That can only be a good sign, for Royaumanians to take heart in it. It surely must have been fate that Lady Cromwell and I collided at the market -- I had a feeling we were kindred spirits, when she came to my aid, but now I am most assured of it. I might hazard a guess that she wishes for peace just as much as I -- for the sake of her brother fighting in the field, yes, but also selflessly for the sake of others, not wishing to see any other person in pain...”

“She sounds like a perfect knight in shining armor,” said Skye, her voice oddly cutting.

Orion looked up at Skye, startled by her tone. Her arms were crossed over the chest of her faded blue linen dress.

“Anything else you want to tell us about the fair Lady Cromwell,” she said rather icily, “or are you actually ready to talk about how you plan to end this War?”

Orion blinked slowly. “...I thought that we were already discussing that.”

“Really?” scoffed Skye. “‘Cause it sounds to me like you were busy gushing over your new conquest.”

“Conquest?” Orion repeated. His confused tone then melted into something more soothing and indulgent, “Oh -- no, Skye...you misunderstand me. I have no interest in courting Carewyn -- she’s just my contact point, with the palace.”

Skye gave a very loud, disbelieving snort. “Ha! Right, of course she is -- that’s why you can’t stop gushing about ‘Carewyn this’ and ‘Lady Cromwell that.’”

“Skye has a point, Orion,” said McNully, though his voice was a lot less confrontational. If anything he sounded almost sheepish. “I mean, about 85% of your report was about Lady Cromwell. You used her name over ten times just in the span of a minute.”

Amazingly Orion’s calm, hard-to-read expression didn’t crack. His hands clasped lightly in front of him.

“Lady Cromwell plays an essential part in this strategy. I’m an outsider looking in, without her insight -- a ship sailing blindly, without the light from a lighthouse to give me direction.”

“A lighthouse for a lost ship -- oh yeah, those sound like the words of someone who’s focusing on winning a war and not swooning over a pretty face,” said Skye scathingly. “Maybe instead of always running off and playing dress-up, you could actually bother to do your duty and go help fight on the battlefield for once!”

Orion’s lips came together tightly, but it didn’t make his expression any less composed. McNully shot Skye an uncomfortable, faintly disapproving look.

“Easy, Skye,” he murmured. “You know Orion -- ”

But Skye didn’t seem to hear McNully. Instead she tore into Orion.

“Face it, Orion -- you just like being treated like a commoner again and being able to make believe that you don’t have any responsibilities or worries...well, guess what? You’re not a commoner anymore! You’re the Prince of Florence -- you reckon little Miss Knight-in-Shining-Armor would take kindly to that, when she finds out?”

Orion’s dark eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly upon Skye’s face.

“Carewyn’s not an unreasonable woman,” he said softly. “I’m certain she would understand the reason behind my secrecy.”

This, if anything, only seemed to make Skye madder.

“Of course she would,” she muttered sourly. “Little Lady Royaume can do no wrong in your eyes, can she?”

She turned on her heel and stormed out, leaving Orion feeling very resigned and confused. McNully gave a heavy sigh, before facing Orion with a more serious expression.

“She’s overreacting, as usual,” he said, “but she’s still 60% right. It’s risky enough for you to get this close to anyone right now, when your position as Crown Prince is threatened by the likes of Lord Malfoy. He’d frankly love to have something like that over you. But someone from Royaume? The granddaughter of one of the most powerful, wealthy, and feared noblemen in their country? Orion, that’s dangerous.”

Orion leaned his hands on the table, looking down at the map of Florence and Royaume laid out on top of it.

“McNully, I assure you...my objective has not changed,” he said very levelly. “Everything I have done is for Florence -- for peace and balance. I admit, Lady Cromwell is a fascinating woman, and certainly one to be admired...but I spend time with her to gather intelligence I can obtain nowhere else. That is all.”

McNully looked doubtful, but didn’t directly address it. Instead he said, “I understand she’s your eyes and ears inside the palace, and the intelligence you’re getting is valuable...but don’t forget, she isn’t on your team. She’s on Royaume’s. And right now, Royaume is kicking our tail out there, on the battlefield.”

Orion’s dark eyes drifted away from the table as McNully leaned his arms on the table himself.

“It’s getting bad again,” he murmured very seriously. “I know you said the palace of Royaume’s strapped for funds, but somehow or another, they’ve scrounged up enough to get more cannons, and their troops have been moving them around every couple of hours so that our men never know where they’re going to be firing from next. It’s been very effective. Whoever’s been giving Royaume’s King and Queen military strategy lately, they’re a bloody genius.”

McNully clearly was irritated about this, given the flash that shot through his narrowed eyes.

“Your father sent me a request for a counter-strategy this morning. You know it’s likely if the strategy isn’t one he can execute on his own, he may ask both you and me to join him there, on the front lines.”

Orion did not respond. His expression was as unreadable as ever, but there was something oddly detached and avoidant in his posture.

“I know you don’t want that, and you know I have faith in you,” said McNully, “but your strategy is a slow burn, Orion. It requires both patience and time...and we might not end up having as much of those as you think.”

Once again, Orion chose not to answer. McNully sighed again.

“You know I’ll be right behind you in a coach, if you need me,” he said tiredly. “Just...mind that you use your head as well as your heart, all right?”

Orion threw on his black traveling cloak and headed back to Royaume not long after, hoping to meet up with Carewyn for an evening stroll. There was a notable chill in the air -- if it got much colder, he thought that any rain might instead come down as sleet or maybe even snow.

When Orion arrived at the gate, however, he was met not by Carewyn, but by KC. She was dressed in a high-necked gown made of black velvet and holding a leather-bound book and a stack of parchment in her arms.

Orion tilted his head slightly to glance at the piece of parchment on the top of the stack, which had several “X’s” scattered over an oddly familiar map.

“Plans to bury some pirate treasure?” he asked pleasantly.

KC gave a lightly amused snort. “No, just military plans.”

Her lightly freckled face then grew a bit more serious. “I guess you’re here for Carewyn?”

Orion had been ready to ask more about the military plans KC was holding, but decided not to circle back to it when she changed the subject.

“Yes. Has she been detained?”

“I guess so...” said KC. Her lips twisted into a concerned frown as she looked out at the darkening sky.

Orion’s eyebrows knit together over his eyes slightly. “You seem concerned.”

KC bit her lip. “Mm...it’s just...well, you see, one of the royal carriages broke down earlier today, when the Queen was riding through the country with Lady Yaxley.”

Orion raised his eyebrows. “Lady Iris Yaxley, do you mean? Carewyn’s cousin?”

“Yes. No one was badly hurt, fortunately, but the Queen, Lady Iris, and the coachman and footman were forced to ride the horses back and leave the carriage behind. When they got back, they asked the royal carpenter, Charlie Weasley, to go fix it. Charlie said that he probably wouldn’t have the proper tools to fix it here at the castle, so Carewyn offered to ride out with him, so that their horses could drag the coach together to the Weasley family cottage, about forty minutes away. The problem is,” she said with a deepening frown, “they left over two hours ago, and they’re still not back yet. Bill headed out after them on his own horse not long before you got here...he’s Charlie’s brother, so he knows the route they would’ve taken...”

Orion’s dark eyes had narrowed significantly.

“Which road did Sir Weasley take after them?” he asked, his calm voice nonetheless touched with the faintest edge.

KC pointed. “Northwest -- toward the mountains.”

Orion nodded. “Thank you.”

And with this, he turned on his heel and rushed back toward where he thought he might find McNully’s coach. He needed to borrow a horse.

Setting one of the black horses free of the black coach, Orion rode off toward the mountains, his slightly-too-long dark hair flapping freely behind him. The road was well-marked, but it soon veered off into dense woods as it migrated up toward the mountains. Orion had never gone so far west into Royaume before, let alone far from Florence before. Despite himself, he had to acknowledge the beauty of the landscape. The views of the castle below were breathtaking -- it looked as tiny as a toy, and yet the infinite glass windows made it sparkle like some diamond-like beacon in the darkening sky. He wondered if his own palace in Florence looked so beautiful to others, at a distance. As much as he himself hadn’t been raised a prince, it was difficult for him to look at his own palace as anything other than a cage.

As he went further uphill and the sky darkened, it also grew colder. Orion was starting to see his own breath on the air. He thought of Carewyn alone in the cold, perhaps hurt, and had to take several deep breaths to sooth his nerves. He was never in a right state, when he let his thoughts run too wild or his fears chatter too loudly.

Finally Orion caught sight of two familiar ginger-headed men, standing by an overturned coach, covered in mud and missing one of its back wheels. One of the men was the tall, freckled castle guard from the other day who Carewyn called Bill, dressed in his high-collared blue and red patterned uniform tunic and matching white feathered, blue-velvet hat -- the other was much stockier, but no less freckled, dressed in a burgundy-colored tunic and loose brown pants and boots, and he wore his ginger hair in a ponytail not unlike Orion’s when he was at court. When Orion approached them, Bill immediately reacted with suspicion -- Orion explained what KC had told him and asked where Carewyn was, and was incredibly startled to hear her voice coming from over the edge of the cliff.

“I’m down here!”

Orion couldn’t help but feel a flash of concern. He raced over as if to look over the edge, but Charlie lashed out an arm in front of the taller man to stop him.

“Uh, I wouldn’t look over if I were you, mate,” he said, having trouble biting back his laughter despite himself.

He pointed at the broken carriage. Hanging over one of the doors was what looked like the burnt orange and beige skirt of a dress and several wool petticoats.

Orion blinked a few times in great surprise, his tanned cheeks darkening with a faint blush. Bill, however, reacted with anxiety.

“Carewyn!” he shouted over the ravine. “Are you in your underwear down there!?”

“Ugh -- well, I couldn’t very well climb down into this briar patch and wrench this wheel loose in my dress, could I?” Carewyn called back up rather haughtily. “At least my bloomers are slightly akin to the sorts of trousers you all wear.”

“You’ll catch a death of cold out here!” said Bill.

“I’m all right,” Carewyn reassured him. “Ulk -- ugh -- I have the wool jacket Andre made for me on...”

Charlie took a step forward, his eyes moved up toward the darkening sky pointedly so as not to look over the edge as he called down,

“Bill’s right, though, Carewyn -- it’s getting colder by the minute...and it’s getting dark too. Are you sure you can lift that thing up and over all by yourself?”

“Ugh...I admit, it’s a bit difficult!” she called back. “But I think I can manage.”

Recalling Carewyn’s blatant refusal of help in retrieving her horse, Orion -- still fighting back a slight blush -- called over the ravine himself.

“We do not question your capabilities, Carewyn,” he said patiently, “but would you like our help?”

“Ugh -- don’t be silly,” said Carewyn, sounding faintly haughty. “You, Charlie, and Bill would break your necks, climbing down here. And I’m still in my undergarments -- I have no interest in anyone seeing me prance around without proper clothes on, thank you.”

“It’s no use,” Charlie muttered under his breath, “I’ve tried to offer her help for the last hour, but she keeps putting me off, saying she’s fine. I don’t get why she feels like she has to do everything by herself...”

“Probably because she’s always had to, Charlie,” said Bill quietly. His voice betrayed a lot of sympathy and sadness as he exhaled through his nose.

Orion’s black eyes deepened with some compassion for Bill as he called back over the ravine to Carewyn,

“Your points are well made, my lady...but we’d still like to help you.”

“Ugh -- you can help me by leaving me my dignity and not looking over while I’m only half-dressed...ack...”

“Would you accept us doing more than that?”

“Urgh -- I am...sorry to have made you and Bill come out all this way -- but I’m all right, really.”

Bill glanced at Orion out the side of his eye, and then back at the cliff. Despite his distrust of the man, the eldest Weasley was sort of glad he wasn’t the only one who disliked how reticent Carewyn was to accept help.

“You don’t need to apologize,” he said earnestly. “I was -- we were worried about you, Carewyn. You and Charlie.”

He and Orion glanced at each other. Bill wished the other man’s expression wasn’t so hard to read. The castle guard tried to twist his uncomfortable frown into a smile that Carewyn would hopefully be able to hear over the edge of the cliff.

“Come on...let’s get you and that wheel up and over so you can get back into your dress.”

There was a silence. Then Carewyn said a bit more quietly,

“...You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Wha -- oh, come off it, Carewyn!” said Charlie exasperatedly. “To hell we do! You think I was mucking about, calling you my pal and saying I needed to figure out a nickname for you? Now let us help you, or I’ll consider making that nickname an irritating one!”

There was another silence. Then Carewyn sighed very loudly and tiredly, and Orion couldn’t help but grin, because he could tell she’d finally given in.

“Oh, all right,” she said begrudgingly. “But I don’t really know how you’re going to help, when you can’t look at me.”

Orion closed his eyes.

“Describe your surroundings, Carewyn,” he said. “Paint a picture for me, with your words.”

“...Well, I’ve gotten the wheel out of the briar patch. I’m trying to roll it back up, but it’s as large as me, and the downward slope and the ice is making it difficult. Plus the wheel isn’t in great shape -- all of its spokes are broken, so there isn’t much for me to push up on, while rolling it uphill.”

“I would’ve told her to just forget it, but it’d be much easier for me to carve a new wheel if I have framework from the old one,” Charlie explained. “I’m already going to have to make the new spokes and hubcap completely out of wood instead of using any gold or metalwork, but it’s still going to take a lot of time...even more so if the old wheel framework can’t be saved...”

Orion considered the matter, visualizing the set-up down below on the inside of his eyelids. “...What’s left of the wheel...is it made of metal or wood?”

“Wood...but there seems to be some sort of metal lining around the rim, held on by nails.”

“That’d be for durability, I reckon,” said Charlie. “Wood alone would get chaffed badly on the ground, moving in a constant circle down cobblestones or over anything rocky.”

Orion opened his eyes and looked over the broken coach. His gaze lingered on the thick leather straps coming off of the front that no doubt would’ve attached it to their horses. Then he abruptly got up, rushing over to undo the straps from the carriage.

“What are you doing?” said Bill, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Orion quickly knotted the long, thick leather straps together with several complex-looking and strong knots.

“Carewyn,” he called over very calmly, “I’m going to lower this down to you -- use the buckle and loop it securely around the inside rim of the wheel, so that it’s tight. Give it a light tug when it’s secure.”

He blindly tossed one end of the rope made out of leather straps over the edge of the cliff. After a minute, he felt a light tug at the end.

“Gentlemen,” Orion murmured to the Weasleys, “I’ll need you to hold this, for just a moment. Carewyn,” he added, as Charlie and Bill both grabbed the end of the makeshift rope and he let go, “I’m going to need you to step onto the wheel yourself and hold on.”

“What?” said Carewyn. “Orion, you can’t lift both me and the wheel -- it’s far too much! I’ll climb up and out myself -- ”

“Not to worry, my lady -- none of us will be doing the lifting,” said Orion serenely.

He led both his black horse and Bill’s chestnut horse over by their reins, and -- taking the makeshift rope from Bill and Charlie again -- he looped the end under the straps of both his and Bill’s saddles. He gave several tugs at all of the connections to make sure they were tight and secure before mounting his horse.

“Sir Weasley, if you would assist me.”

Catching onto Orion’s idea at last, Bill rushed forward so he could jump up onto his own horse.

“Mr. Weasley, you may want to have your hands ready to help Carewyn climb out when she gets close to the top,” said Orion over his shoulder. “Sir Weasley, together now.”

With a lot of effort and strain, the two horses were able to lift Carewyn and the broken wheel up and out of the ravine. Once Carewyn was out, all three men averted their eyes so she could put her dress back on. Once she was suitably redressed in her orange-and-beige dress, snood, and dark scarlet wool jacket, she, Bill, and Orion helped Charlie secure some makeshift posts he’d carved out of some nearby tree branches under the broken coach so that their four horses could lift it up off the ground and help support it without its second back wheel. Then the four hobbled the coach up the mountain the rest of the way to the Weasley family cottage.

The home of the Weasley family, affectionately nicknamed “the Burrow,” was built up against the side of a hill. Attached to the house was a large farm with sprawling pastures and short, rustic wooden fences. Its roof had clearly been patched up multiple times over the years with whatever kind of wood was on hand, making it resemble a patchwork quilt.

When the group arrived, Bill and Charlie’s youngest sibling and only sister Ginny immediately ran out to greet them -- she’d seen them coming up over the horizon and was beyond thrilled to see that it was her eldest brothers. Bill and Charlie’s teenage brothers Percy, Fred, George, and Ron soon followed along after. Fred and George -- who were identical twins -- were quick to crow that Charlie had brought them an early birthday present (namely, the coach), and Percy scolded them that clearly it was for work and they should let it alone. Orion and Carewyn ended up staying back at a distance, both faintly baffled by the amount of warmth and noise emanating from the seven siblings as they chattered amongst themselves, constantly stepping on each other’s feet and interrupting what everyone else was saying. Neither of them had ever encountered a family quite like this before. When Bill and Charlie’s parents, Arthur and Molly Weasley, emerged from the house, however, Molly very quickly bustled every last one of them inside, including Orion and Carewyn.

“In you go, the lot of you,” she said in a forceful, but very warm tone of voice. “You all look like you need some supper-- ”

“Oh -- no, Mrs. Weasley,” said Carewyn very quickly, “I couldn’t impose -- ”

“Nonsense, dear!” said Molly, as she took Carewyn’s hands and led her inside. “Why, you’re positively freezing! To think, you came all the way out here without a proper muff for your hands...”

“I had to help Charlie with the carriage,” Carewyn said, her eyes drawn away awkwardly rather than looking at Molly, “I couldn’t hope to have my hands free, using a muff...”

“Then both of you should come inside and get warm,” said Arthur, startling Orion with an amiable clap on the back. “Any friend of Bill and Charlie’s is a friend of our family.”

Carewyn had never been the subject of such coddling and generosity before in her life. Her mother had always taught her to treat people with respect and compassion, of course, but she had been a soft-spoken and understated person, and their family life had always been very quiet. And of course at the Cromwell estate, it had been less modest and quiet, but far less affectionate as well. Never had she ever visited such a loud, crowded, and faintly uncomfortable place that still nonetheless felt like a home, full of warmth and love.

Even Orion found himself feeling a bit unsettled by the Weasley family’s overwhelming hospitality. He’d been in plenty of unruly, crowded, and loud settings like this before -- but none of them had ever been quite this...well, jovial. It made it so that Orion yearned for peace, quiet, and returned distance, and yet also couldn’t help but marvel at the positive vibes that rippled off of this family and how much they could give, despite clearly having so little. When dinner was served, Orion had to politely decline a bowl of beef stew because he didn’t eat meat, and Molly Weasley immediately handed the bowl off to Ron so she could set about making Orion his own plate, piled high with cheesy mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and roasted cauliflower seasoned with garlic and chives.

The Weasley family and their guests sat in an uncomfortable, messy half-circle around the large brick fireplace, laughing and talking as they ate. After supper came the dessert of hot, fresh apple dumplings, and after dessert came some hot tea and scones. After all, said Molly Weasley, having guests over was a rare treat, so they were going to celebrate appropriately. Neither Carewyn nor Orion could remember ever having felt so full in all their lives.

As everyone enjoyed their scones and tea, stories and songs were swapped around the fire. At one point in the evening, twelve-year-old Ginny -- who was perfectly thrilled to have another girl around, for a change -- begged Carewyn to sing for them. Apparently Bill had told his family all about her lovely voice. So, with some encouragement from Charlie, Arthur, and Molly, Carewyn bit back a broad, amused grin, took a deep breath, and started to sing.

“Mother cannot guide you...now you’re on your own.

Only me beside you -- still, you’re not alone...”

Orion had thought to himself that Carewyn must have done the song from his youth proper justice while singing for the Prince, but hearing her sing it in person, seeing her smile at him and her eyes sparkle as she did so...it was a completely different matter. As before, Orion felt all of the tension in his shoulders ebb off of him, as easily as dirt was washed away in warm water. He bowed his head and closed his eyes, tilting his head a bit so that he could hear her better, as his breathing and heart rate slowed. Even with his eyes closed, he could hear a smile in every word Carewyn sang...even when she likely wasn’t smiling at all, he thought. How could she be smiling, when lines like “sometimes people leave you half-way through the wood” and “people make mistakes -- fathers, mothers” rang with such emotion and pain? Was that pain visible on her face? Orion thought not, given Carewyn’s sense of grace and composure...but he heard it, all the same. He felt it -- her heart, aching with a kind of deep, blazing empathy Orion had never encountered in anyone else before.

When Carewyn came to the end of the song, Orion opened his eyes at last. The Weasleys all clapped, delighted, but he barely heard them as he turned to Carewyn.

“...That was remarkable,” he murmured.

Carewyn smiled. “I’m glad you think I did it justice.”

“Mm,” said Orion. “I’ve...never heard anyone drown like that, before.”

Carewyn couldn’t bite back a laugh. “Perhaps I didn’t do it justice then, if I sounded like I was drowning...”

“You were drowning in the words’ meaning,” corrected Orion. “Enveloping and submerging yourself in them -- allowing them to pull you in and take your breath away.”

He smiled, his black eyes very soft upon Carewyn’s face.

“It was...very moving.”

Molly’s face spread into an indulgent smile as she reached forward and patted Carewyn’s hand. “It was absolutely beautiful, dear.”

“Orion’s right, Carewyn,” agreed Arthur. “Your feelings really came through. I could tell the words mean something to you.”

Carewyn offered a polite smile, even as her eyes drifted away. “...I suppose they do.”

“It sounds like a lullaby, sort of,” mused Ron. “Even if it talks about your mother not being around.”

Ginny tilted her head toward Carewyn, Ron’s words prompting concern.

“...Do you not have a mother, Carewyn?”

The rest of the family went very quiet -- some like Percy shot Ginny warning looks, while others like Molly and Ron couldn’t help but glance at Carewyn in similar concern.

Carewyn’s gaze had drifted off onto the fire. Although she was turned away and her face was stoic, however, Orion could see her eyes rippling like turbulent ocean water, before she closed them solemnly.

“...I had one,” she answered softly at last. “She died when I was twelve.”

“Was she sick?” asked Ron, very hesitantly.

Carewyn bowed her head and gave a single, silent nod. Everyone in the room knew what that meant. The Plague had swept through both Royaume and Florence several times, over the span of the War -- one of the worst years was about nine years ago now...probably the same year Carewyn had lost her mother.

Orion’s black eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly upon her face. Molly looked like she wanted to envelop Carewyn in the biggest hug and was only holding back the urge because of her husband’s tight, reassuring squeeze to her hand.

“Oh, you poor dear,” she murmured.

Carewyn raised her head at last, her expression once again touched by a small, resilient, pretty smile.

“It’s all right,” she said gently, her eyes only briefly grazing each of the Weasleys’ faces. “I’ll always miss my mother...but I’m getting along all right. And I still have Jacob.”

“Your brother?” asked Percy, and Carewyn nodded.

“He left for War the same day he and I moved in with our grandfather,” Carewyn explained.

“Your brother must be quite a bit older than you, then,” said Orion.

Carewyn glanced at Orion out the side of her eye, smiling slightly. “Nine years older, yes. You know...you actually remind me of him, a bit.”

Orion raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

Carewyn was forced to stifle a giggle behind her hand. “Jacob is also the sort to do things in his own clever way. Only he’s a lot more aggressive than you -- and more talkative, and arrogant, and overprotective...”

“And uglier,” inserted Fred.

“And smellier,” added George.

“With a long crooked nose and ears like a bat’s.”

The younger Weasley siblings were all laughing now. Carewyn had to cover her mouth to stifle her giggling.

“No!” she choked. “I don’t mean it like that! He’s wonderful, really. He’s just...well, an absolute idiot about how to interact with other people. He’s completely brilliant, mind you -- he could give you whole lectures about anything from geography to mathematics to physics...but coming up with spontaneous gifts for no occasion at all, just based on someone’s interests? He’d need some prodding, to do something like that.”

She smiled at Orion, who couldn’t help but grin fully in return.

“It was truly nothing at all, Carewyn,” he said. “With your love of music, it felt like that song would be something you would appreciate.”

Arthur glanced at Orion curiously. “Where is that song from, Orion? I’ve never heard it before.”

“I learned it as a boy,” Orion answered. “I would hear it sung outside the window of the workhouse, sometimes.”

Molly looked very troubled. “Workhouse? Orion dear, you don’t mean to say you grew up in one of those terrible places?”

Orion felt Carewyn’s gaze on him. When he looked back at her, her almond-shaped blue eyes were rippling with concern as well, though much gentler and more empathetic than Molly’s. He tried to offer her a smile.

“Let’s just say the words spoke to me as well, at the time,” he said lightly. “Not just to me, either...all of the boys there, one way or another, were where they were because of other people’s ‘terrible mistakes.’”

Orion’s gaze drifted down to his own hands as he lightly clasped them in his lap.

“...The War doesn’t touch you the same way here, but...the closer you are to Florence...the more the reality of it hits you in the face, every day. Even when you’re not on the battlefield itself -- even when you’re just at the border -- you, and the ones you care for, run the risk of getting caught in the crossfire. And on the border of Florence and Royaume...in those towns where it’s hard to tell where one country starts and another begins...tensions are like gunpowder. One spark from the tiniest match can set it ablaze -- can make everything implode, and force you to start all over again.”

His face was unreadable, but his black eyes were endless, rippling with the recollection of the fire and smoke -- the red and blue colors of Royaume, on the saddles of horses -- the life leaving his mother’s eyes -- his own heavy, terrified hyperventilating...

He closed his eyes and took several very deep, measured breaths before continuing.

“In such a place...one can find people desperate enough to want to lash out at others, to avenge their pain,” said Orion solemnly. “But there was one sweet old woman who owned a flower and herb shop near the workhouse. She’d had to rebuild her establishment several times over the years, and from what I understand, she finally had to leave town not long after I did...but every time she caught wind that the army was coming to town, looking for new recruits...she’d sing the song just loudly enough that we boys could hear it through our window.”

He absently played with the crudely carved circular charm on the cord around his neck in one hand.

“And although there were those who still enlisted afterwards...many others did not.”

Carewyn’s eyes widened.

“‘While we’re seeing our side,’ ” she sang again, more softly, “‘maybe we forgot...they are not alone. No one is alone.’ ”

Orion’s lips spread into a smile as he looked at Carewyn, his black eyes rippling gently as he nodded.

“So it’s against the War, then,” murmured Charlie. He glanced at his parents, who both looked concerned.

“Did that woman with the flower shop give you that?” asked Ginny curiously, indicating the charm around Orion’s neck.

“Yes,” said Orion. “She gave it to me one night when I tried to run away, to soothe my nerves. Its effects wore off by the next morning, but I’ve never really had the heart to throw it out.”

Percy sputtered, looking very pale. “Th-then she was a witch?”

“Whoa,” said Fred and George, looking almost too eager.

“Did she turn all the army into pigs?” asked George.

“Did she lure you in and try to cook you in a soup?” said Fred.

Orion smiled indulgently. “Of course not -- ”

“Well, thank Heavens for that!” said Molly, shooting the twins a very reproachful look. “Magic isn’t something to make fun of, you two -- it’s frankly a wonder you weren’t hurt, dear...”

Orion frowned. “There was no danger, Madam Weasley, I assure you.”

“No danger! Orion,” Molly scolded him indulgently, “I applaud your courage...but nature has its own way of things, and any magic that twists it out of shape is more dangerous than it’s worth.”

To the Weasley family’s surprise, Carewyn actually spoke up.

“Mrs. Weasley, men tend fields, plant seeds, domesticate horses and dogs...treat illnesses and injuries...cut hair and wear makeup and put on heeled shoes to make ourselves appear taller. Would that not also be twisting nature’s intent?”

Molly actually faltered somewhat. “Well, yes, but...that’s very different from magic, Carewyn! Magic is...well, it’s wild. Uncontrollable.”

“It’s untamed chaos,” said Arthur more levelly than his wife. “A kind that’s done a lot more harm than good.”

“But it still can be used for good,” said Carewyn very firmly. “And if it has that potential, why must we treat it as though it and all of its users are inherently reprehensible? If magic can be used to save lives, or heal the sick, or even just calm a scared boy down after something horrible...”

She glanced at Orion out the side of her eye.

“...Then it seems to be like any other weapon or tool, or even any other person -- something that could protect or hurt.”

Orion felt like his heart was being flooded with warmth, and his entire expression melted with pride and something like affection as he stared at Carewyn.

She truly is a woman to be admired. The memory of Skye’s irritation and McNully’s warning rippled over Orion’s mind and he found himself faltering. Admire...yes. Anyone could grow to admire such a woman, couldn’t they? To respect and esteem her...to...grow an attachment, to her... Even I? Could I...?

The Weasleys exchanged uncertain looks amongst themselves.

“Come to think of it,” said Ron thoughtfully, “wasn’t there that old myth about fairy godmothers who grant you wishes?”

Fred brought an arm roughly around his younger brother’s neck and put him in a rough choke hold. “Aww, ickle Ronnie wanting a pwetty new dress?”

“‘Oh fairy godmother, I just gotta have a new dress for the Winter Festival!’” said George in a high-pitched squeal.

“Geroff!” growled Ron, as he pulled free.

“Oh, but that would be fun!” sighed Ginny. “Dancing at the Winter Festival, in the prettiest dress you’ve ever seen...you’re going to the Festival, aren’t you, Carewyn?”

“Probably not, Ginny,” said Carewyn gently, “I’ve got so much work to do...”

“Oh, but you have to!” whined Ginny. “The Festival’s tradition! Right, Orion?”

“So I’ve heard,” Orion said modestly, “but I’m afraid I’ve never attended a Winter Festival either.”

“What?!” said all of the Weasley children except Bill in thoroughly aghast unison.

“It’s the biggest celebration of the entire year -- ”

“Everybody in town will be there -- ”

“ -- well, aside from the noble tarts -- ”

“ -- but hey, who needs them?”

“Everybody makes the best mince pies and hot apple cider -- ”

“There’s dancing and singing and games and gift-giving -- ”

“You just can’t miss it -- ”

Before long, they’d completely gotten off the topic of magic all together, so the Weasleys could tell Orion all about the Winter Festival. Carewyn took the opportunity to start carrying dishes into the kitchen so that she could help Molly clean up. While she did so, Bill pulled her aside.

“Carewyn...can I talk to you? Alone?”

Carewyn blinked, but nonetheless put down the dishes she was carrying and followed Bill off into a secluded corner.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in concern.

Bill bit the inside of his lip, his brown eyes drifting over in the direction of the fireplace where the rest of his family was sitting with Orion.

“Carewyn,” he said slowly, “who is that man, really?”

Carewyn’s eyebrows knit together. Bill ran a hand over the undone collar of his tunic absently.

“He’s hiding something, I know it. And I’m sure you see it too. He dodges questions he doesn’t want to answer, and as much as he’s even told us tonight about himself, he never gives important details. He lived near the border, but he didn’t mention what town he’s from. He lived in a workhouse, presumably after losing his parents, but he never said what he lost them to.”

“Those things might not be easy for him to talk about, Bill,” Carewyn said softly.

“Yes,” said Bill in a bracing voice, “but he also hopped the walls of the palace, completely ignorant of how tight royal security is and why, has enough time to chase after you most every day, and gets paints from people he can’t identify and learns songs from people who, from the sound of things, practice witchcraft.”

Bill crossed his arms. He clearly was trying to be considerate to Carewyn’s feelings, but couldn’t hold back his concerns.

“Look, I...I understand you like the man. And I understand why -- Ginny and the others seem to have taken to him pretty well, too. But there’s no reason for someone to hold back that many secrets, unless they’re up to no good. He could be a cad, or a criminal, or maybe even something worse. Judging by his stance on magic, he could even be a magician himself...”

His brown eyes narrowed slightly upon Carewyn’s face.

“I’m just...worried about you, that’s all,” he said lowly.

Carewyn considered Bill for a long moment. Then, reaching out a hand, she gently took hold of Bill’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

“Bill...I understand how you feel. And I’m grateful, truly grateful, for your caring. I hardly deserve it, and it...it means a lot to me.”

Bill frowned deeply, ready to say something, but Carewyn cut him off.

“But believe me when I say that people don’t just keep secrets because they mean to do harm. Sometimes -- for some people -- they’ve had to learn to hide themselves and shield their hearts...so much so that even when they encounter good people, it’s hard for them to let their guard down. Sometimes they’ve known so much pain that, even though they’re kind people, they’ve numbed themselves to a degree, just to protect themselves. Lied so much...that it becomes second-nature. Or worse, lie because they don’t know who they can really trust...because so many people have hurt them that they don’t know what trust even feels like anymore.”

Bill’s expression lost some of its edge, though it still looked wary.

“...And if he is a magic user?”

“Then he’s one of the good ones,” said Carewyn firmly.

Bill still looked a bit unsure. Carewyn squeezed his shoulder a bit more tightly, her eyes resting there instead of on his face.

“Bill, my brother is only alive, thanks to magic.”

Bill was startled.

“The Plague swept through our whole house,” said Carewyn lowly. “First the landlord and his family -- then my mother...and then Jacob. We were living hand-to-mouth, and I didn’t have anyone else to go to...so I went to the Cromwell estate.”

Bill’s brown eyes became a little smaller, darkening with grim understanding.

“...You went to your grandfather.”

Carewyn nodded. “He disowned Mum long ago, but he was still our family, so I thought he might be willing to help us. He agreed to take Jacob and me in and nurse Jacob back to health, so long as we paid back his generosity. Grandfather then tracked down a witch who could cast a spell to save Jacob’s life.”

Bill’s eyebrows furrowed. “Lord Cromwell hired a -- ?”

“Do not repeat this, Bill!” Carewyn said very sharply and urgently. “To anyone, do you understand? No one.”

Her eyes then softened visibly, becoming grimmer and sadder.

“Jacob was dying. There was no other option.”

Bill looked like he was in pain, just hearing this second-hand. He swallowed, and then gave a nod.

“So that witch saved your brother’s life,” he said quietly.

Carewyn nodded, her eyes full of emotion despite the stoicism of her features.

“The spell she cast bound Jacob’s life to Grandfather’s will. Jacob was brought into the house on a stretcher just after dawn, and within a half-hour...he was up on his own two feet again.”

Carewyn closed her eyes. She could still remember Jacob’s blazing, relieved smile as he barreled down the stairs and threw his arms around her, cradling her like a baby.

“My Wyn -- my sweet Wyn -- ”

Not long after that, though...Jacob’s arms were yanked away -- all of him was yanked away -- held back by Blaise and Claire and Pearl’s husbands, who all had work to together just to restrain Jacob as he fought to reach her, screaming and raging like a mad man --

“WYN! NO! GET OFF OF ME -- WYN! I WON’T LET YOU -- CAREWYN!”

Carewyn opened her eyes, the soft longing fading from her face completely and leaving a much more stony expression behind.

Bill himself, however, looked more troubled than ever.

“You said your brother left for War the same day you and he arrived at the Cromwell estate,” he whispered shakily. “Do you mean that, right after saving your brother’s life...Lord Cromwell immediately sent him off to War -- all while knowing how few men return home alive?”

Carewyn’s lips came together tightly.

“Grandfather sent him to the front, so that Jacob could start paying back the debt I owed him,” she said, her voice very soft and oddly distant. “After all...a man who wouldn’t die, so long as he willed it...would make an excellent soldier.”

Bill looked horrified.

“Then...” he whispered, “...then Jacob’s only alive because your grandfather decides whether he lives or dies? You only know your brother’s still alive after so many years at war...because Lord Cromwell is bound to him through magic, and he’s holding his life over your head?”

Carewyn withdrew her hand from Bill’s shoulder and turned away.

“Carewyn...that’s monstrous!” said Bill, and he was unable to keep his voice from rising. “I didn’t even know magic could do something like that -- but -- but that’s nothing, compared to...”

He couldn’t restrain himself. He actually threw an arm around Carewyn and pulled her into a hug from behind. The small ginger-haired woman stiffened like a startled cat.

“Bill?”

Carewyn looked up at him -- were those tears, in his eyes?

“Have you...never told anyone else, about this?” Bill murmured.

Carewyn tried to turn around, her blue eyes welling up with regret and pain. “Bill...”

She brought a hand through his hair, trying to soothe him the way she used to for Jacob.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I -- I didn’t mean to upset you -- I only wanted to explain why I’m not scared of magic...please forgive me.”

Bill closed his eyes to try to hold back both his righteous anger and his tears.

“Forgive you?” he repeated in a choked voice. “For what, trusting me with the truth?”

“For making you worry unnecessarily,” Carewyn said forcefully, trying to ignore how uncomfortably her stomach was squirming.

Bill opened his eyes, looking both flabbergasted and more upset than ever. “Unnecessarily?”

He roughly grabbed both of Carewyn’s shoulders and forced her to look up at him.

“Now you listen here, Carewyn Cromwell,” he said, taking on the sort of tone he only ever used with his younger siblings when they were being rowdy, “you may get to decide if you want to interact with me or not, or rely on me or not, or accept my help or not. But you don’t get to decide whether I worry about you or not. And from here on out...”

Bill’s brown eyes were blazing with resolve.

“...I’m going to worry about you. Because I hate the thought of someone feeling like anybody else worrying about them is somehow a problem.”

Carewyn was left speechless.

Bill’s face broke into a broad smile through his tears. “Until your brother’s back from the War, Carey, I’ll be looking after you for him -- no arguments, no dismissals, no saying you’re fine on your own. Got it?”

Carewyn looked at Bill, perfectly stunned. Then her gaze fell away toward the floor.

“...It sounds like...I really don’t get a choice in the matter, then,” she whispered.

“Nope,” said Bill, grinning broadly.

Carewyn was unable to fight back the weak smile prickling at the sides of her lips, nor the emotion flooding her eyes, even as she kept her face turned away.

“...And I suppose ‘Carey’...is a suggestion of a nickname you plan to give Charlie, for me?”

Bill’s eyes sparkled fondly. “Well, every one of my siblings has a nickname, in case you haven’t noticed.”

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #cinderella au #carewyn cromwell #orion amari #murphy mcnully #skye parkin #bill weasley #charlie weasley #percy weasley #fred weasley #george weasley #ron weasley #ginny weasley #molly weasley #arthur weasley #katriona cassiopeia #charles cromwell #jacob cromwell #my art #my writing #GAAAAHHHH BILLLL #I LOVE YOU SO FRIGGIN' MUCH MY PRECIOUS BOY ;~;#you go be a good big brother and best friend for carewyn you wonderful thing #also ooh hoo hoo~ orion you can claim you're not crushing but you aren't fooling anybody hahahaha #you'll figure out what you're feeling soon enough >D #we're learn more about how magic works in this universe as time goes on of course #but yeah rest assured there's still a lot to unravel in regards to what happened to jacob... >>#and of course this part is another reminder that charles cromwell is a no-good son of a b****

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